Kafui Danku
Ghanaian media personality and entertainment pundit, Pretty Abena, has described the response by the National Film Authority (NFA) to backlash over its use of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content for promotional campaigns as disrespectful.
Speaking on United Showbiz, Pretty Abena said the defence mounted by the Executive Secretary of the NFA, Kafui Danku, that “AI does not automatically mean fewer opportunities for Ghanaian creatives, but rather the question should be who is using the AI and what they are using it to create,” was wrong and insensitive considering the current state of the local movie industry.
According to her, the Ghanaian film industry is struggling and can best be described as a “dead movie industry” that needs creative, human-driven support, not AI-generated stories from its own governing body.
“I do not support the NFA, as a governing body of the film industry, using AI-generated content for its promotional campaigns,” she stated.
Pretty Abena argued that the NFA, as a regulator, should be championing real filmmakers and creating opportunities for human creativity instead of defending artificial content.
The pundit was reacting to a statement by Kafui Danku defending the use of artificial intelligence in filmmaking as another creative tool.
Kafui Danku, following the backlash, released a statement, disclosing that she recently released her first AI creation, and while some film enthusiasts welcomed it and commended her for being forward-thinking, she noticed reservations from some creatives, particularly young people.
“I also noticed something that genuinely concerned me: reservations from some of our own creatives, particularly some of the younger people I expected would be curious enough to ask, ‘How did you do this? What prompts did you use? How can we make it better?’ Instead, some of the reactions were rooted in fear; particularly the fear that AI means they may no longer have opportunities to work on set,” she said.
According to her, AI does not automatically mean fewer opportunities for Ghanaian creatives, but rather the question should be “who is using the AI and what they are using it to create.”
By Prince Fiifi Yorke