Google is preemptively hedging against any risk of backlash from creative industries over its new AI media-generation tools — by bringing artists in as spokespeople.
During the company’s annual I/O developer conference Tuesday, executives emphatically noted that Google’s new photo, music, and movie-making apps were “built with and for creatives,” including actor and filmmaker Donald Glover (also known as the musician Childish Gambino) and rapper Wycleaf Jean.
Google’s new AI video generator Veo uses text, audio, and visual inputs to make videos; it also debuted new AI audio and photo apps called Music AI Sandbox and Imagen 3.
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis played a highly produced, stylish video of Donald Glover at his sprawling farm in Ojai, California praising Veo. He sat around a table, sun shining through the windows, with his team and Google’s, watching Veo create a scene from the prompt “tracking shot of a 1960s convertible driving up to a Spanish, Mediterranean palace surrounded by lush foliage…”
“It looks good,” Glover said in an impressed tone, watching with his chin perched on his palm. Google’s Veo makes videos that would be otherwise impossible to create at a much higher speed. Glover says that’s “what’s cool about it” — that “you can make a mistake faster. That’s all you really want at the end of the day, at least in art — it’s just to make mistakes fast.”
The use of AI in creative industries has come under scrutiny from actors, authors, and musicians who fear that, when used irresponsibly, the technology poses a major threat to their livelihoods. Some critiques concern the use of computers to replace creative work carried out by humans; others include the use of original content to train AI models and tools that generate deepfakes of celebrities.
In addition to Glover, Haitian rapper Wycleaf Jean, a former member of the Fugees with Lauren Hill, was shown in a promo video for Music AI Sandbox, Google’s suite of AI music tools made in collaboration with YouTube.
Songwriters and singers Justin Tranter and Blush as well as music producer and YouTuber Marc Rebillet also made appearances.