{"id":628725,"date":"2026-10-12T22:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T22:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/628725\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T22:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T22:40:09","slug":"african-filmmakers-prepare-for-the-ai-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/628725\/","title":{"rendered":"African Filmmakers Prepare for the AI Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe world premiere of what\u2019s been billed as the first photorealistic, AI<\/a>-generated feature film in the Yoruba language fizzled out last week when user demand overwhelmed the servers of Docuth, the streaming platform that hosted the launch.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter months of hype building to the release of \u201cAsiri Ilu Awon Osu\u201d (Mystery of Osu Land), the film\u2019s Nigerian producers, Mysterious Tech Studio, took to social media to apologize for the glitch, telling their followers: \u201cTo everyone at home and abroad who has tried to watch and could not get through, please do not be offended or discouraged.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe episode felt somehow symbolic for this moment in the history of AI in Africa, where excitement over the technology\u2019s transformative potential for the continent\u2019s filmmakers often runs counter to the practical realities on the ground.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs African industry professionals convened at this year\u2019s Durban FilmMart<\/a>, both the potential and pitfalls of artificial intelligence were high on the agenda.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the chief concerns for many stakeholders are the barriers to entry. AI tools that are widely available elsewhere in the world face unique challenges in reaching African consumers, from high data costs and low broadband speeds to payment-processing headaches.<\/p>\n

\n\tTamara Dawit, of Ethiopian Canadian production company Gobez Media, noted that those challenges represent significant \u201csystemic barriers\u201d to the adoption of the latest tech tools on the African continent.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHow do we address those issues so that everyone is benefitting from the advancements in technology?\u201d she said. \u201cIf these are great opportunities for the industry, can everybody actually access them?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tZukisani Karabo Mabece, of media-tech and production company Digicine Motion Picture, agreed. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAI isn\u2019t necessarily a magic pill,\u201d said Mabece, whose Johannesburg-based company has leaned into generative AI with a host of digital tools designed to democratize access to cutting-edge technology for African filmmakers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s very biased. It\u2019s very Western,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re having to build our own language models to accommodate the languages that we have here locally. We took it upon ourselves to build models that serve our market and our geography.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn some instances, the rapid adoption of AI technology has had unintended consequences that aren\u2019t unique to Africa. <\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier this year, the South African government drafted an ambitious AI policy that was summarily withdrawn when journalists discovered that at least six of its 67 academic citations were the by-products of AI hallucinations, referring to journals and authors that did not exist. The drafters appeared to have used a large-language model to compose the policy without verifying its claims.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the blunder was a PR disaster for South African policymakers, Amilcar Patel, who serves as co-chair of the South African Screen Federation (SASFED), noted that there are more pernicious dangers lurking for Africans when it comes to using AI tools developed in the Global North.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe need to be very careful when we\u2019re using AI in our work, especially in our policy and legal work, because we\u2019re infusing a very different culture that doesn\u2019t protect women, that doesn\u2019t protect the poor, that doesn\u2019t protect the vulnerable, into our legislative framework,\u201d said Patel. \u201cAnd then it becomes law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor African creatives, there are additional ethical factors to consider. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAI mirrors society,\u201d said Dawit. \u201cSociety has a lot of systemic inequities within it, and those show up [in AI models].\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThose that are building AI don\u2019t look like us. Biases are already built into the AI systems,\u201d added Samantha Kaine, of the Independent Media Producers Assn. of Creative Talent (I.M.P.A.C.T.). \u201cWhen the major AI models are trained largely on Western data and Western culture, what does it take to use these tools without importing someone else\u2019s aesthetic or erasing who we are \u2014 erasing our own identity?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSuch concerns are likely to be on the agenda next month when Cape Town plays host to the Africa AI Summit, a three-day event that gathers heads of state and global tech and business leaders to draw up a roadmap that will shape the future of AI across Africa and the Global South.<\/p>\n

\n\tBacked by partners including the World Bank, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Nvidia, the event is built around a billion-dollar AI initiative that\u2019s designed to accelerate the deployment of artificial intelligence across the continent.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the meantime, African filmmakers will continue to find uses for AI tools, even as the continent\u2019s digital infrastructure and policy frameworks are forced to play catch-up.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne week after the failed rollout of \u201cMystery of Osu Land,\u201d Kafilat Yusuff, of Mysterious Tech Studio, told Variety that after \u201cviewers experienced intermittent access due to high traffic at launch,\u201d the platform \u201chas now been stabilized.\u201d The film, which incorporated roughly 80% AI-assisted scenes with 20% live-action scenes utilizing real actors and their voices, is now available to stream on Docuth.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur experience has shown us that AI offers independent African filmmakers new ways to explore ambitious stories and visual worlds,\u201d Yusuff said. \u201cHowever, it also raises important questions about the role of human performers, consent, compensation, creative ownership and how audiences receive AI-assisted films.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for future plans, she said that the company is holding off on a follow-up until \u201cMystery of Osu Land\u201d has had time to enjoy a \u201cfull run.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe spent a lot of time building this, and with the premiere traffic we just saw on Docuth, it\u2019s clear there\u2019s a lot of global curiosity. So our focus now is festivals, wider press and securing a stable global streaming release so everyone who wants to see it can,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are documenting everything we learned from this hybrid 80% AI-20% live-action pipeline, which will eventually help us and other African filmmakers make future projects at lower cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Durban FilmMart runs Oct. 9 \u2013 12 in Durban, South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world premiere of what\u2019s been billed as the first photorealistic, AI-generated feature film in the Yoruba language…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,308481,111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-628725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-durban-filmmart","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}