The 4th MEGA Film, New Media, and Creative Technology Summit - The Trends and Opportunities of AIGC in the Development of Film, Culture, and Creative Industries Successfully Held at XJTLU Entrepreneur College (Taicang)

On 11 May, the 4th MEGA Film, New Media, and Creative Technology Summit - The Trends and Opportunities of AIGC in the Development of Film, Culture, and Creative Industries was successfully held at XJTLU Entrepreneur College (Taicang).

The forum brought together numerous industry experts and business leaders with deep expertise and extensive practical experience in artificial intelligence and creative media. They explored the applications, trends, challenges, and opportunities of AI in film, culture, and creative industries, shared contributions and experiences, and jointly advanced the development and reflection on film, new media, and creative technology within the context of AIGC technology integration. Notably, the forum's broad influence attracted nearly 1.73 million online viewers, demonstrating its significant societal attention and industry impact.

Professor Zhoulin Ruan, Vice President of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, attended the forum and delivered a welcome speech. He shared Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University’s research achievements in artificial intelligence and highlighted the university's notable accomplishments in the field of AIGC, including several national and university-level research projects. He emphasised that the forum provided a valuable opportunity for industry experts and leaders to exchange ideas, aiming to promote in-depth integration between industry, academia, and research, and to drive innovation and development in the AIGC field. Professor Ruan also hoped the forum would serve as a platform for intellectual exchange and contribute wisdom and strength to the prosperous development of film, new media, and creative technology.

Professor Zhou-Lin Ruan, Vice Chancellor of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

Professor Alvaro Collar, Dean of the School of Cultural Technology, discussed the extensive applications and profound impacts of AI in cultural and creative fields such as music creation, image and video generation, film production, and the gaming industry. He also emphasised that the school has incorporated discussions and research on AI technology into its teaching and research practices. He pointed out that the rapid rise of artificial intelligence not only offers advantages such as cost reduction and efficiency improvement but also brings new considerations and challenges to the cultural industry. He looked forward to discussions among industry and academic experts at the forum that could provide new ideas for further development and application of AI technology.

Professor Alvaro Collar, Dean of the School of Cultural Technology

AIGC Leading Industry Innovation: Technological Exploration and Application Innovation Building the Future

With the rapid development of AIGC technology, various industries are experiencing unprecedented changes and opportunities. From iFLYTEK’s AIGC application innovations to the integration of AI and art, AI empowerment in film production processes, and 3D digital avatars in the metaverse era, each technological breakthrough signals new trends in industry development. In this wave, we must not only focus on technological innovation but also consider how to effectively apply these advanced technologies to practice and advance the industry to a higher level.

Mr. Hongping Zhi, Executive Vice President of iFLYTEK Suzhou Research Institute and General Manager of iFLYTEK (Suzhou) Technology Co., Ltd., gave a presentation on “Exploration and Application Innovation of AIGC Technology.” He detailed the background of a new round of content production revolution driven by generative AI, iFLYTEK’s AIGC applications, capabilities, and foundational layout, particularly the capabilities and limitations of iFLYTEK’s AIGC application and the virtual singer image created by iFLYTEK Music.

Mr. Hongping Zhi, Executive Vice President of iFLYTEK Suzhou Research Institute and General Manager of iFLYTEK (Suzhou) Technology Co., Ltd.

Dr Jieming Ma, Head of the Computer Science Department at the School of Intelligent Engineering at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, discussed the theme “‘AI+Art’ or ‘Art+AI’.” He explored the integration and symbiosis of AI and art, highlighting the relationship and differences between personal art creation and AI-generated art. Dr Ma emphasised that the urgent task for AI product applications is to achieve deep integration with the industry and introduced the AI innovation joint entity established in cooperation between Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University and Baidu: the XJTLU-Baidu Joint Venture. Moving forward, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University will continue to develop and release platforms for AI art creation and make further efforts and attempts to achieve cooperation and symbiosis between AI and art.

Dr Jieming Ma, Head of the Computer Science Department, School of Intelligent Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

Mr. Yichuan Zhang, Director of Virtual Production Technology at Zhouming Technology Innovation Business Unit in Shenzhen, focused on “The Film Production Process in the AI Era,” including LED virtual production, AI empowerment in film production processes, digital asset cloud platforms, and the future of LED+AI film. He used selected cases to explain in detail the practical transformations brought by AI technology to traditional film production.

Mr. Yichuan Zhang, Director of Virtual Production Technology, Zhouming Technology Innovation Business Unit, Shenzhen

Mr. Deyi Yao, Deputy General Manager and Chief Technical Engineer at Shanghai Film Production Company, presented on “AIGC and Domestic Film Industry Development Analysis.” He discussed the applications, advantages, limitations, and impacts of AIGC models such as Sora in the film industry from the perspectives of film production processes, film practitioners, the film market, related industries, and daily life, and shared his insights and views on the entry of AIGC into the film industry.

Mr. Deyi Yao, Deputy General Manager and Chief Technical Engineer, Shanghai Film Production Company

Mr. Tao Zhang, Founder of Spider Intelligence, spoke on “Using AIGC to Input into the Future.” He analysed the relationship between humans and AI and how humans can achieve creative goals through AIGC. Mr. Zhang highlighted that AIGC laboratories focus on empowerment and practical combat, advancing artificial intelligence research through commercial project practice. He also stressed that AI cannot replace humans but serves as an assistant, lowering the creative threshold for humans.

Mr. Tao Zhang, Founder of Spider Intelligence

Mr. Yahong Jiang, a national distinguished expert and Founder and CEO of YouChain Era, focused on “3D Digital Avatars of Humans and Objects in the Metaverse Era.” He provided detailed explanations of the creation, cases, and application scenarios of real-life 3D digital avatars. Mr. Jiang also noted that the next decade will be the era of virtual 3D digital metaverses, where the development of the metaverse will achieve continuous technical optimisation and improved experiences.

Mr. Yahong Jiang, National Distinguished Expert and Founder and CEO of YouChain Era

Finally, Mr. Tao Han, Director of Baidu Cloud Intelligence Education Solutions, presented on “Exploration of Artificial Intelligence Large Model Technology and Application Innovation.” He introduced the essence of artificial intelligence and large model technology, mainstream AIGC tools, and the industry applications of AIGC. He also provided a thorough analysis of the new user experiences, digital human intelligent solutions, and application values of large model digital humans, as well as the paths to creating them.

Mr. Tao Han, Director of Baidu Cloud Intelligence Education Solutions

Peak Dialogue

Following the presentations, the academic host, Professor Li-Chuan Evelyn Mai, Associate Dean of the Academy of Film and Creative Technology at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University and Dean of the School of Film and TV Arts, led a peak dialogue session with the experts.

Professor Mai discussed the advantages of different AI applications, how to bridge the gap between computer and art languages and processing methods, the educational and research achievements of AIGC laboratories, and the potential ethical issues of AI virtual 3D digital avatars with the guests. She further envisioned the multifaceted impacts of mature AI technology on the film industry.

This forum delved into the application, prospects, and challenges of AIGC in the film, culture, and creative industries from various dimensions such as industry forefront technologies and development directions, allowing us to focus on the current bottlenecks and risks of AI technology while actively exploring the unlimited potential of AI in the integration with film creativity and cultural industries.

By Hongyu Ji, Xiaomin Xu
Edited by Xiaomin Xu