The Creative Code: Generative AI and the Transformation of Authorship in the Screen Industries
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63300/arjst0205202506Keywords:
Generative AI, Authorship, Screen Industries, Creative CollaborationAbstract
The rapid integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) into the screen industries is challenging long-held notions of creativity, authorship, and artistic ownership. This paper explores how GenAI tools—ranging from script-writing assistants to visual generators and voice synthesis technologies—are reshaping creative workflows in cinema, television, and digital content production. Drawing on interdisciplinary frameworks from media studies, authorship theory, and AI ethics, this study critically examines the evolving role of the human creator in an age where machines can mimic and co-create narrative structures, visual aesthetics, and character arcs. Through interviews with industry professionals, content creators, and AI developers, as well as textual analysis of AI-generated screen content, the research reveals a growing trend toward hybrid authorship models, where human intention and algorithmic suggestion coalesce.
The results highlight key transformations: (1) GenAI is reducing production costs and timelines but raising questions about originality and creative control; (2) traditional screenwriters and directors are negotiating new roles as curators and collaborators of machine-generated content; and (3) industry policies and copyright frameworks are lagging behind, leading to legal ambiguities surrounding intellectual property rights. While GenAI democratizes access to content creation, it also risks homogenizing narrative structures due to data-trained biases. Ultimately, this paper argues for a redefinition of authorship in the screen industries—one that recognizes the collaborative entanglement of human vision and machine logic. As screen culture moves deeper into the algorithmic age, understanding this transformation is vital for ethical innovation and equitable recognition of creative labor.
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