Consumer demand for more entertainment will help to firmly integrate artificial intelligence into the movie and TV production business, says Ryan Steelberg, the president and CEO of Denver-based Veritone Inc.
The use of AI, which can recreate scenes and human voices, is one of the issues in the long-running Hollywood actors and writers strikes. Workers are demanding guidelines for how AI is used, as well as compensation reflecting greater use of the technology.
Steelberg says AI is here to stay and growing more widespread.
“It’s going to be an indispensable, integrated tool,” he told the Business Journal on Aug. 10. That applies to users “both in front of and behind the camera.”
Veritone is an AI software and services company (Nasdaq: VERI) whose technology includes product applications in media, sports and entertainment. The company went public in 2017, and currently counts a valuation approaching $120 million.
One focus is on generative AI, a broad label that’s used to describe any type of artificial intelligence that can be used to create new text, images, video, audio, code or synthetic data.
Two of the much-discussed strike issues include using actors’ images in AI-generated background scenes and in script writing.
Veritone representatives took their message to the 2023 Voice & AI Conference in Washington, D.C., from Sept. 5-7, setting forth their views on the strong future of AI in a series of presentations.
Local AI Applications
Various forms of AI are being developed and used across the board in Orange County.
For example, Syntiant Corp. incorporates artificial intelligence into its voice-command chips.
Orange County cybersecurity pioneer Stuart McClure last year founded a new business incubator and accelerator, NumberOne AI, designed to put artificial intelligence and machine learning to work peering into the future.
Telematics company CalAmp Corp. (Nasdaq: CAMP) uses AI to help “reign in distracted driving, speeding, tailgating, and other leading cause of accidents and fatalities.”
UCI Research Park
Veritone has 3,700 software customers and a little over 700 employees companywide.
Veritone moved its headquarters designation from Costa Mesa to Denver in 2021, but has kept a strong presence of 175 employees in Orange County.
The company has its local offices at UCI Research Park. “This is our Orange County headquarters,” the CEO says.
Its former base in Costa Mesa is now used by California Pizza Kitchen for its headquarters.
Consumer Demands
“We the consumers are demanding this. We have insatiable appetites for content. The only way we’re really going to meet those demands is not just the old way of producing things,” Steelberg said.
For instance, he suggested hypothetically that a film company may save 20% of costs by using AI for backgrounds.
“It’s going to come down to dollars in terms of production and budget.”
Veritone is “very engaged” on the voice side of the technology, licensing synthetic voice technologies that produce nearly 100% accurate synthetic versions of individuals’ voices and animation-based voices, with necessary consent and permission required.
“We have a couple hundred media and entertainment customers, including big studios like Sony and Amblin Entertainment [founded by Steven Spielberg], Warner Brothers and the like,” according to Steelberg.
Uses also include the company’s digital media, “which provides intelligent and automated AI-based indexing of their content.”
The company’s other business lines include helping companies with advertising and ad placement, as well as enabling companies to improve their hiring practices.
