NEW YORK — Creatives and artists have perceived agentic and generative AI as a threat to their work, but the tide is turning, and many are reclaiming control over their content.
Generative AI has come a long way for creatives, who initially decried the technology in 2022 and even shamed some of those who used it. For example, artists who used the tool and won art contests were met with criticism.
On the other hand, fear gripped artists and writers who saw that AI imaging platforms such as OpenAI’s Dall-E and Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion appeared to be outright copying their work without attribution
That fear at the start of the modern generative AI era led to numerous lawsuits, such as the one Getty Images filed against Stability AI, for artists. Another lawsuit, filed by the Authors Guild against Anthropic, led to a $1.5 billion settlement. On the filmmaking and Hollywood side, entertainment companies such as Disney, NBCUniversal, and Warner Bros. have sued AI imaging vendors, including Midjourney, alleging that the models generated unauthorized copies of their copyrighted work.
Two Sides
With all these lawsuits, writers and creators, and Hollywood directors and executives also appear to hold hard stances.
The prevailing sentiment is that either “AI is going to save Hollywood or AI is going to burn Hollywood to the ground, it just depends on which side of the fence you’re on,” said Jason Harvey, executive vice president and general manager at BET+, during a presentation on Dec. 10 at the AI Summit conference in New York.
For those opposed to the use of AI technology in creative work, the tools available can detract from the human element, leading to more uninspired work. Those against also argue that creatives do not need to use AI to be better or to create art. On the other side, many are convinced that embracing AI technology is the future and can be helpful for humans.
“AI could enable us to have a future that is more secure than ever because we’re going to have algorithms and agents that can actually protect you and let you know if your name is being used,” said Cameron Kit, founder of Yoyos, a documentary storytelling company, during a debate at the conference about the use of AI technology.
A Middle Ground
While the camps appear polarized in the creative industry, some see a middle ground as a viable option.
“I definitely think you need the human touch to anything you’re creating,” said Joe Livecchi, CEO of Wrigley Media Group, in an interview. “At the end of the day, as human beings, we want something novel. We don’t want something that is the average of a thousand other things. We want a unique creative concept, a theory, or a discovery.”
Livecchi is not against the use of AI technology. He said that everyone at Wrigley Media Group have agentic tools at their disposal, and he uses Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT. Meanwhile, his team also uses an array of AI tools, including Veo and Nano Banana from Google, as well as Grok, the AI chatbot from Elon Musk’s xAI company.
“We’re experimenting with new technologies all the time,” Livecchi continued. “There’s a lot of [low-quality material] out there, too, and it’s really hard to keep up with, but to me, it’s exciting that there’s all this choice. It’s almost impossible to do business and not use AI in some way.”
Moreover, the new AI tools provide an opportunity for creatives, he said.
“I came up at a time where there was a barrier to entry,” Livecchi added. “I couldn’t just go on the street and make a movie. Now, anyone can create something, put it online and have millions of people see it. To me, that’s exciting.”
However, there should be a standard for those training the models on intellectual property to compensate IP creators, according to many in the industry.
“I don’t think it should be free and open to everyone just to use at will,” Livecchi said, adding that IP protection is needed because it is likely that the creator spent many hours creating something they were unable to sell, IP protection might help them get paid.
Revenue Sharing Mode
Many model providers are working toward a revenue-sharing model. For example, Getty Images maintains a revenue-sharing model for contributors whose content was used to train its AI models. Also, OpenAI has established publishing partnerships with prominent news organizations, including The Associated Press and The Atlantic.
Other companies that are using AI are also exploring a revenue-sharing model.
For instance, Pinaki Saha, founder and CEO of Anshar Labs, a digital product engineering company, introduced TekFlix, an AI platform that turns unstructured videos into short, engaging avatar-based learning videos. The platform was built with open models: Meta Llama and DeepSeek. Anshar Labs also uses a third-party avatar generation platform suitable for various industries beyond media, including healthcare and finance.
However, with increasing interest from small ecommerce businesses and sellers, Anshar plans to build more elements that enable affiliates to submit content on behalf of clients and share in the revenue, Saha said in an interview.
While the videos on TekFlix mainly feature avatars, Saha said this does not detract from the human aspect because the process started with humans.
“The beginning of it is human creativity because you’re defining what the content is going to look like and how it’s going to navigate along the roadmap,” he added. He said a machine can’t do that because it doesn’t have human emotions to define the landscape.
“We can never take ourselves away from the loop; we will always be repositioning ourselves, but not taken out of the loop,” Saha continued.
The Argument for Using AI
For Anthony Bailey, pastor of Reconciliation Church in New York, tools like TekFlix demonstrate what AI can do for creatives.
“This is great, especially with the visuals,” Bailey said. “If I have a sermon, on my sermon notes and if I can plug that in and have that as a visual, I think that would help people all the more.”
He added that he would never use AI to create sermons because it detracts from the intimacy with God. At the same time, as a creator, he said other creatives should use it and not shy away from it
“Don’t let it master you. Use it for your benefit,” Bailey said. “Use it to better yourself. Use it to build upon your creativity because … it is just a tool. It all comes from you. You’re the main character in the story.”
