
Photo: Czerny
Photo: Czerny
Artificial intelligence is conquering the media world at a rapid pace – and is not stopping at the documentary film industry. Filmmakers ask themselves many questions when using AI-generated content, first and foremost: What am I even allowed to do? AI expert Jacques Alomo, documentary filmmaker Christian Beetz, lawyer Richard Hahn and presenter Eva Wolfangel sought answers to these questions at the DOK.forum, the industry event of DOK.fest.
Can I create a painting in the style of Vincent van Gogh with the help of artificial intelligence? Is every image I create with an AI tool my own? Is it legally permissible to generate a song with Frank Sinatra's voice? In his keynote speech "Legal Puzzles in AI: 50 Shades of Grey Explored", AI expert Jacques Alomo confronted his audience with these questions. The Munich native could only give one possible answer to many of them: "I have no idea."
This was not due to a lack of expertise. On the contrary: Alomo used various AI tools to vividly show astronauts landing on the moon, Frank Sinatra singing "Gangsta's Paradise" and how the assassination of the Roman Emperor Caesar might have looked. The reason why many questions remained unanswered during this presentation was another: there are simply no laws on how to deal with AI-generated content – and therefore no clear answers.
The fact that filmmakers enter a gray area as soon as they want to use AI-generated content in their productions also became clear during the subsequent panel discussion. XPLR: MEDIA organized the keynote speech and subsequent panel together with Blauer Panther, TV & Streaming Award. Renowned documentary film producer Christian Beetz (CEO Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion) described his concerns from a media maker's perspective during the panel discussion: "I am very cautious when it comes to using AI content in documentaries. There are very fluid boundaries – in a legal dispute, everyone would decide differently."
»The question is not whether we like this technology, but how we deal with it.«
Christian Beetz
Photo: Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion
He himself is represented at DOK.fest with the film "Eternal You", a documentary set in the USA that portrays a company that digitally resurrects deceased people through the use of AI. "The question is not whether we like this technology, but how we deal with it. Because it will come", says Beetz in the interview. Even though he only uses AI-generated material very carefully in his films, he describes himself as a proponent of this technology. "It also gives us the opportunity to make historical things tangible."
AI is already regularly used in post-production for image and sound editing. Nevertheless, Beetz is nervous about the future: "The technology is developing so quickly that we don't really understand it. It's becoming quite a beast that we constantly have to get to grips with." What would give him a better sense of security as a filmmaker would be a universal right on a global level. "We are releasing more and more on the international market. But every country decides differently in such cases. It's always possible that material you've worked on for years simply has to disappear from the market."
»German law will not change for the time being. We have to apply existing law to AI content.«
Dr. Richard Hahn
Photo: Czerny
The European AI Act is an initial reaction to legally regulate the use of AI, not at global level, but at least at EU level. However, for the lawyer Dr. Richard Hahn, who gave an overview of the legal situation regarding the use of AI content at the panel, this document is still not enough. "The AI Act primarily regulates the use of large AI tools. It does not address personal rights at all."
In addition to copyright, however, these are particularly important for documentary filmmakers. "German law will not change for the time being. We have to apply existing law to AI content", explains Hahn. Case by case, you then have to examine individually which rights have been infringed – or not. Nevertheless, the lawyer remains optimistic about the future: "We are now in a very similar situation to when the internet was invented. The only difference is that the development of AI is much faster."