Who Gets to Shape AI? Power, Creativity, and the Limits of GovernanceFriday 13 November 2026, 15:30 – 17:00

Creativity with AI in film: opportunities in an ungoverned era

Dominic LeesAssociate Professor of Filmmaking University of Reading

How are creative practitioners in the film industry using the opportunities of Generative AI? What ethical and governance issues do they express and how does this impact on their adoption of the technology?

Two trends are emerging in the use of AI in the film industry: a novel, pure-AI subculture of film content creation, and the integration of the technology into traditional workflows of film production. Increasingly accepted in mainstream screen cultures, the creative realities of using AI tools are proving more complex than its enthusiasts predicted. This talk provides an update on recent creative uses of AI in the film industry, focused on live action fiction production, animation and documentary filmmaking. It reports on recent research into UK screen industry freelancers’ use of AI tools, with unique insights into the problems that creative professionals encounter.

Who Gets to Shape AI? Power, Creativity, and the Limits of Governance

Friday 13 November 2026, 15:30 – 17:00

Chair: Kieren Reed — UCL, Slade School of Fine Art

As generative AI moves from experimentation to infrastructure, this panel examines how it is reshaping power, ownership and responsibility across creative and cultural production. Bringing together perspectives from speculative futures, intellectual property law, filmmaking and critical media studies, it considers how AI establishes new norms of creativity, legitimacy and value while complicating consent, authenticity and accountability. The discussion asks whether responsible AI requires adapting existing institutions or redistributing the power to shape technological change.