BFI publishes AI recommendations for UK screen sector

Titled AI in the Screen Sector: Perspectives and Paths Forward, the report says that the UK’s strong foundation in creative technology – home to over 13,000 creative technology companies – means that its screen sector is well-positioned to adapt to the AI technological shift. From AI-enhanced dubbing and visual effects to interactive storytelling and automated content classification, it says UK creatives and technologists are pushing boundaries with generative tools and models. 

The report considers how the adoption of generative AI within the UK screen sector raises significant legal, ethical, and practical challenges that need to be addressed.

It says the primary issue is the use of copyrighted material – including more than 100,000 film and TV scripts – in the training of generative AI models, without payment or the permission of rightsholders.

Other issues include safeguarding human creative control, the fear of job losses through replacement and investment for training in new skills, high energy consumption and carbon emissions, and risks to creative content around biased data.

The recommendations include establishing the UK as a world-leading market of IP licensing for AI training; embedding sustainability standards to reduce AI’s carbon footprint; and supporting cross-disciplinary collaboration to develop market-preferred, culturally inclusive AI tools.

The report calls for structures and interventions to pool knowledge, develop workforce skills and target investments at the UK’s high-potential creative technology sector. Finally, it urges support for independent creators through accessible tools, funding and ethical AI products.  

The report was commissioned and published by the BFI through its partnership in the CoSTAR Foresight Lab, led by Goldsmiths, working with the University of Edinburgh and Loughborough University.

Rishi Coupland, the BFI’s Director of Research & Innovation, said: “AI has long been an established part of the screen sector’s creative toolkit, most recently seen in the post-production of the Oscar-winning The Brutalist, and its rapid advancement is attracting multi-million investments in technology innovator applications. However, our report comes at a critical time and shows how generative AI presents an inflection point for the sector and, as a sector, we need to act quickly on a number of key strategic fronts.”

Recommendations include:

1.  Set the UK in a position as a world-leading IP licensing market
2.  Embed data-driven guidelines to minimise the carbon impact of AI
3. Responsible AI: Support cross-disciplinary collaboration to deliver market-preferred, ethical AI products
4.  Enable UK creative industry strategies through world-class intelligence
5.  Develop the sector to build skills complementary to AI
6.  Drive increased public understanding of AI use in screen content
7. Boost the UK’s strong digital content production sector to adapt and grow
8.  Unlock investment to propel the UK’s high-potential creative technology sector
9.  Empower UK creatives to develop AI-supported independent creativity