Artists Debate the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Emotionally-Charged Annecy Roundtable: ‘Don’t You Think Humans Want Human Art?’

While AI has been one of the most discussed topics in Annecy this year, from pre-festival controversy to crowds literally booing shorts built with generative AI tools during screenings, “puzzled and uncomfortable” seems to be the best way to define both audience and panelists in today’s AI discussion held at MIFA, Annecy’s industry component.

In an event that was “artist-driven, unlike most of other AI conferences in the industry,” according to moderator Flavio Perez, Cto of animation studio Les Fées Spéciales, the crowd went from skeptical to dumbfounded as the panelists unrolled their own lack of answers to what has been described many times now as the most significant contemporary threat to the creative industries.

But, while they lacked straight answers, directors such as Boris Labbé, director of the AI-generated short film “Glass House,” featured in Anneyc’s Off-limits competition; Verena Repar, director of AI-enhanced student film “Echoes of Grief,…