In March, the Spanish government became one of the first countries in Europe to approve draft AI laws, nearly a year after the official approval of the landmark European Artificial Intelligence Law, providing a common legal framework for the development, commercialization and use of AI systems throughout Europe.

AI is one of the most divided problems in the entertainment industry today. A week after the unveiling of the Spanish draft law, 400 Hollywood creatives signed a letter of concern about copyright protection in the arts and entertainment sectors, bringing resistance to Openai and Google’s appeal to the U.S. government to allow its AI models to train copyrighted works.

Meanwhile, James Cameron recently suggested filmmakers who save movies by using AI to save 50% of their speed in big budget movies, and Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos replied that he hopes AI will make them "10% better" too.

These are powerful arguments in smaller industries like Spain. “Technological advancements are welcome and important enhancements for industries accustomed to fighting giants, such as high-yield budgets and excessive bureaucracy,” Beatriz Pérez de Vargas said. AI Alter Ego, invisible informationa three-chapter documentary for public broadcaster RTVE on AI, which also won awards for using AI.

Daniel H. Torrado Great resetHe agrees with the original fully-based function of Spain, if not Europe. "All creators have a lot of projects in the closet because many of them either can't find funds or have production problems that can get them off the ground," he said. He said his apocalyptic thriller - about the mind of a rogue hacker who threatens to destroy the world, "without AI, there will be unbearable costs and production time". “AI enables us to simulate complex decisions early without budget risks, which often paralyze many independent creators.”

But Torado added: “Human supervision is unchanged. Every art, narrative and
Emotional decisions run through my hands. AI is a powerful tool, not a replacement for the Creator. ”

This is the topic among those who are trying AI. "We need to embrace it, but we can't replace art," said Paco Torres, director of film and business, who conducted AI training courses to private companies and government organizations around the world. “We can’t lose artists, white papers, creations with nothing, emotions, human interactions, imperfections… we need to fail, not be perfect – it’s important because it’s how we feel.”

Regulation in Spain

Emphasizing the 22-year-old AI capture, José Erique Lozano (ECAM) (ECAM), the creator of the new AI and Big Data Masters program at the Academy of Photography and Audiovisual (ECAM) in Madrid, managing director of Geca, AV data and consulting firm GECA, said that if we are going to keep challenging challenges: On the other hand, I think the more we regulate, the more we lag behind. ”

Manuel Cristóbal, director of the Seville European Film Festival and a long-time producer specializing in animation, agreed. “We have to see AI as an opportunity,” he said. “If you have restrictive laws in different continents and in different countries, this will kill creativity…it will develop elsewhere.”

That is, where there is less regulation, this is why global dialogue must be made on what we see ourselves as a species. "Do we have a philosophy that can be said, well, this is happening to us, how will we accept this?"

RTVE series AI Alter Ego, invisible information Experts from around the world have conducted research from two perspectives: utopian and dystopian. The show won two Lovie awards (a Pan-European Award that recognizes Internet culture excellence) by using 10 different tools to create 2D and 3D visuals, as well as two different tools to script and create AI characters. Pérez de Vargas, director of the series, said there was little consensus on how to move forward. “Overall, the European perspective reflects a more preventive approach,” she observed. “Other countries, such as the United States and China, are more vigorous. Their priorities are not to slow down technology.”

Lily Li, a California-based meta-lawyer who specializes in privacy and artificial intelligence, notes: “In Spain and other countries, you are seeing draft AI bills that are consistent with the EU AI bill. In the United States, we will definitely work to unify the differences between the United States. We definitely see AI at the AI ​​level.

Lee suggested that the United States will also do a good job in order to follow the AI ​​literacy of the EU Act. According to experts and those interviewed by this story, the greatest risks of AI are suspicious (deep litigation and misinformation), subconscious manipulation of human behavior, lack of diversified opinions, invasion of privacy, lack of transparency, lack of transparency and power. Li specifically points to "high-risk AI processing" that affects an individual's well-being, such as decisions about their employment, insurance or credit.

The new draft Spanish law, “Ethics, Inclusiveness and Benefits of Artificial Intelligence”, addresses these issues, reflects the EU ACT language and sets a series of steep fines ranging from $7 million to $35 million to $35 million, or 2% to 7% of the company’s annual global turnover rate (for small businesses, less global turnover) because it believes it believes that the behavior it believes will be harmed. It is scheduled to be established in 2023 for partial supervision.

"AI is a very powerful tool to improve our lives or attack democracy; it can have good or bad usage," said Spain's Minister of Digital Transformation and Public Services Óscar López in a press conference introducing the law on March 11.

Steps are also being taken elsewhere in the local entertainment industry. The Spanish Film Academy is adding languages ​​to ban the use of generated AI tools to compete for some of its subsidies. In June, Spain's film academy voted to ban AI-generated soundtracks from participating in the country's Best Goya Awards.

AI production

Grilled gift Great resetin the European film market in Berlin, he will also showcase to potential distributors in Cannes Marché. “We integrate AI tools into almost every stage: scripting, conceptual design, foresight, visual planning, image generation, post-production and editing,” he said. “We combine custom generative models to maintain style coherence.”

The workflow, he said, "is more similar to animation production than traditional shooting, but it shortens the timeline, reduces costs and enhances narrative precision." He said the film costs less than $230,000, mostly spent on AI subscriptions and copyrights, while Spain's $8 million may lose $50 million in the United States. Hire an actor for a week to use as a "reference" for movement or sound. From beginning to end, with the finished script, the English film took about six months.

"I think AI can expand creativity," Torado said. "AI opens up dozens of possible routes. It's like having a huge team of creative assistants that they can use, they never take a break and always have new ideas. The challenge is knowing how to filter, decide, curate and guide."

He added that he has been trying out AI for the past two and a half years and has worked with programs like Chatgpt, Midjourney, Runway, Elevenlabs, Pixabay, Krea, Krea, and others to do it in the short films as well as the AD and SPEC campaigns. However, he said he took a "protectionist" stance, learning and using tools as "an extension of the creativity I want to shoot", but set restrictions to use AI only in pre-production. He called it a "hybrid" model and insisted that a bunch of people always participate.

"The author is still in the hands of the Creator," he insists. "AI has neither creativity nor creativity; in fact, automation is the opposite of creativity and originality. Its repetition, pattern, repetitive process... At the end of the day, AI is like this: the creator's tool."

Training the next generation

Werner Herzog once famously declared, “If you want to make a movie, steal the camera, steal the raw materials, sneak into the lab and do it!” Cristóbal quoted this sentence: “No more. We all have a camera in our pockets, but not everyone is making a movie or narrative movie.

He envisions a new generation of filmmakers who emerged using these tools. In Spain, a new generation of training options begins to pop up. The University of Barcelona Autonomous University offers a bachelor's degree in AI. RTVE, as part of its training academy, offers dedicated courses in AI focusing on creation and literacy.

Madrid Film Academy ECAM launched a new AI and big data plan in September. "The master's degree is to provide students with the practical skills necessary to address the challenges of the digital revolution in the audio-visual environment, especially in the areas of audience data analytics, consumer habits and measurement," said Alejandra Alvarez Suárez, head of Continuous Education and Graduate Studies at ECAM.

Program Director Lozano added: "In general, we need to blend people who know how to speak two languages, which are bilingual in this sense - those who are able to speak two hemispheres, the language of data science, and people who understand content and content, who see content from a more humanized content, a more social perspective, a more social perspective."

Find the boundary

Cristóbal Living Forest) and the first day and date in Spain (2006 Going crazy). “I’ve been involved in technology and storytelling,” he said. Although not afraid of AI, he added: “I think it’s a whole new world and of course, we need to put some boundaries on that.”

He cites Deepfakes and copyright (AI's use of existing materials) as key issues. "If someone uses AI to write scripts, that's their choice. (But) if there is copyright infringement, they will have to deal with it."

Torado agreed, adding that the need to build a guardrail is crucial. "I also worry about the lack of transparency in model training. We have used tools and services with clear licensing and work ethics, but not all companies can say the same. Training some models without consent or compensation puts creators at risk and urgently needs to establish an ethical and legal framework that protects art and artists."

Both he and Lee point out tools, such as Sora and DeepSeek, which are nowhere to be available in Europe due to legal or bureaucratic obstacles. "This puts us at a disadvantage compared to other more agile industries," Torrado said.

For Pérez de Vargas, streaming platforms use predictive audiences and trend analytics to decide how to generate anxiety. “This could lead to a decline in innovative projects,” she said. “Producer intuition will become increasingly irrelevant, which will lead to audiovisual products becoming more similar and homogeneous. Along the way, we will miss the chance of potentially leading new voices and different ways of storytelling, which will no longer have a place in our field.”

Of course, there is no way back - the elves are bigger from the bottle. "AI can't be 'uninvented'," Torado said. "It's about staying here, refusing to use it is like giving up electricity or the internet. It's a transformative tool that, if well managed, can democratize cinemas and open up to new voices. But to achieve this we need courage, knowledge, smart regulation, and most importantly, politics and culture will master innovative politics and culture."

As one expert accepted on the RTVE series’ first visit, “People with this more developed technology may be those who write history and the future.”