The spectre of AI-driven irrelevance

REMEMBER when making a video required bulky equipment, a field force of camerapersons, an army of editors, sound designers, and countless other support staff? Probably not. For most of us, it meant taking out our phone to record, downloading to make the edits and then uploading to some platform. The monopoly of content had been broken, as evidenced by the fact that some of the biggest creators of today are not legacy production houses but random kids from the remotest towns. But as of last week, none of that may hold on for too long. There’s a new kid on the block, except this time, it’s not some kid out of Mirpurkhas or a housewife from Patna. Artificial intelligence has come for everyone, as the demo of OpenAI’s new product, Soro, shows. All you have to do is give a detailed text prompt, and it will make a high-quality video.