The International Forum on Artificial Intelligence in the Cultural and Creative Sectors
To provide a space for in-depth reflection on the digital future and to connect creativity, technology, and social responsibility, Motovila Institute, in collaboration with Kinoatelje Institute, organised the international forum Sustainable and Digital Transition for Creativity. The forum was held on 8 October 2025 in Gorizia as the closing event of the Go Green Cinema project, which brings together film and sustainable practices, and was part of the programme for GO!2025 – European Capital of Culture and the Tribute to a Vision Film Festival.
Five Key Concepts for a Sustainable Vision of the Future
The forum opened with Dr Angus Finney (UK), an executive film producer, internationally recognised author of key publications in the audiovisual sector, and a leading expert at the intersection of film and AI. In his keynote speech, titled Back to the Future, followed by two panel discussions, he emphasised that there is nothing magical about AI. As a system built, shaped, and trained by humans – often using misappropriated copyrighted works – AI has a remarkable ability to mimic human behaviour. Yet, despite sounding convincingly human, it possesses neither consciousness nor common sense. Addressing the challenges facing the cultural and creative sectors, Finney highlighted five key concepts: autonomy, augmentation, adoption, authenticity, and alignment. As it remains uncertain whether the promises of limitless growth and AI-driven prosperity will be fulfilled, he deliberately avoided the notion of abundance, suggesting instead that we are still far from achieving the central goal: alignment with AI.
- Autonomy
Machines already perform automated tasks, and the rise of AI agents threatens to take over much of the standardised work done by white-collar professionals. The key question is not what AI can do, but what it should do. While AI can rapidly generate numerous ideas for stories and characters instead of a screenwriter, it would be unwise to entrust it with the creative development process. Human judgement, selection, and the creator’s authentic voice transform this material into original, authentic, and emotionally resonant experiences that audiences seek.
- Augmentation
If automation implies that machines take over human work, augmentation refers to closer collaboration between humans and machines in performing tasks. This approach, which Finney describes as the “human in the loop”, keeps the human at the centre of the process, with AI tools enhanced by human senses, perception, emotion, and social skills. A positive aspect is that humans and machines can learn from each other; however, Finney emphasises the need to invest in training and experimentation with AI tools.
- Adoption
It is important to distinguish between the impressive demonstrations of what AI can achieve in laboratory settings and what actually emerges from its adoption and use in everyday life. In the cultural and creative sectors, adoption remains uneven and fragmented. The abundance of AI tools often overwhelms rather than empowers creators, while most show little interest in bundled “all-in-one” solutions, preferring instead to select and combine different tools.
Adoption is also connected to how we choose to spend our time. AI algorithms curate online content, creating information bubbles and contributing to the homogenisation of our choices. As a result, we become more constrained, less curious, and less engaged, while support for new voices and formats diminishes, as they are not backed by data. This uneven distribution of opportunities ultimately distorts power relations within the industry.
- Authenticity
Although storytelling methods evolve over time, audiences retain a fundamental desire to understand the world and form emotional connections that help them make sense of their place within it. In a landscape saturated with derivatives and low-value products, audiences increasingly seek shared experience, authentic moment that adds meaning to their lives. Finney therefore suggests that we may be entering an age of authenticity, in contrast to the age of algorithms.
- Alignment
The greatest challenge of our time is alignment: how can we ensure that the AI we have created remains beneficial and aligned with human values? How can we ensure it serves humanity rather than harms it? Responsible AI must be based on a transparent and accountable framework that connects sectors. In AI content creation, information exchange, and decision-making, ethical considerations and core responsibilities must be embedded across all organisations, not only within the creative “dream factories”. We should adopt more robust frameworks for integrating AI systems into our organisations, governments, and daily lives, with training, upskilling, and intergenerational professional development playing a central role.
Ethical, Environmental, and Social Aspects of AI in Culture and Film
The first of the forum’s two panel discussions explored the ethical, social, and environmental aspects of AI development and use. Moderated by Jana Renée Wilcoxen, participants included filmmaker and researcher of AI in cinema Anna Giralt Gris (Artefacto, ES), expert in environmental sustainability in the cultural sector Gwendolenn Sharp (The Green Room, FR), cultural policy specialist and coordinator of the Action Group on Digital & AI at Culture Action Europe Marco Fiore (Michael Culture Association, BE), and philosopher, sociologist of culture, and social media theorist Filip Dobranić (Danes je nov dan, SI).
An Analytical Approach to Film Using Discriminative AI
Across various stages of production, Anna Giralt Gris uses discriminative AI tools to analyse and visualise the structure and content of film in new ways. AI script analysis enables her to identify the frequency of central themes and determine the rhythm of scenes by counting words. During editing, she approaches the film not as a linear sequence but as a network of images, allowing faster identification of visual patterns and more precise analysis of individual shots. Through quantitative analysis of elements such as contrast, AI tools assist her in observing stylistic characteristics and deciding which aspects of the film to highlight.
In her view, employing AI opens up new opportunities for creativity and for exploring alternative modes of film production, but the human must remain central and be given time to adjust to working with the machine. Research indicates that AI most significantly reduces employment among young people who do not engage with new technologies. The non-use and limited understanding of these technologies can also generate fear. For Giralt Gris, critical thinking and AI literacy are therefore essential and should be actively promoted by universities.
The Responsible Use of AI and Cultural Heritage
Marco Fiore highlighted the significant environmental and social impacts of AI development and use, as well as the lack of collaboration between developers and other stakeholders, including scientists, researchers, and creators. Algorithms reproduce biases present in datasets, while the mistaken belief that data has no owner and is freely accessible undermines creators’ rights. The cultural sector is also facing specific challenges, including copyright issues, fair compensation for the use of copyrighted works in AI training, and the energy demands placed on heritage institutions when AI extracts data from their collections.
Fiore argued that cross-sector collaboration, AI and digital literacy, and transparency in both AI development and products made with the use of AI are essential. It is necessary to reconsider how we label and categorise the data used to train AI systems, with cultural organisations playing a central role, as labelling practices shape how cultural content is reproduced. Responsible AI should be understood as a tool aligned with community needs and designed to have a positive societal impact.
Debunking the Myth of Dematerialisation
Gwendolenn Sharp highlighted the myth of dematerialisation. Terms such as “cloud”, “streaming”, and “wireless” create the impression that digital technology is immaterial, although it relies heavily on natural resources and is rooted in the physical world. The largest environmental impact of AI already occurs during device production; the use of AI generates vast amounts of waste, and accelerated digitalisation only amplifies these catastrophic ecological consequences.
AI is powered by thousands of computers running continuously, consuming enormous amounts of energy and water for cooling. These machines are housed in approximately 9,000 data centres worldwide. To reduce energy consumption, they are concentrated in cooler regions, but their increasing size and water demands are encroaching on agricultural land and port areas. Beyond conflicts over the use of space and resources, such concentration raises geopolitical concerns and questions about data ownership and control.
Filip Dobranić argued that ethics should not be viewed as a constraint, but as a framework that enables society to function. We need to determine when the use of certain tools is acceptable and when it is not. Understanding what is right or wrong, and making decisions accordingly, can only arise from shared practice. In this context, we must consider who is included and whether we, as individuals, are part of it.
Regarding literacy, Dobranić noted that although we have developed an intuitive understanding of how AI tools operate, developers of technologies and products may have entirely different ideas about their intended use. Although we use AI tools intuitively, a more important form of literacy is the one involving understanding that using these tools creates an environmental footprint.
Artificial Intelligence for a Sustainable Future in the Cultural and Creative Sectors
In the second panel, moderated by Gwendolenn Sharp, representatives from various creative sectors discussed how they address technological and environmental challenges, how AI is reshaping their creative processes, the opportunities and limitations it presents, and what is required for its critical and responsible use.
Language Professions and the Easily translAIted. Easily misstAIted. campaign
Tanja Petrič, President of the Slovenian Association of Literary Translators, also serves as a delegate to the European Council of Literary Translators’ Associations (CEATL), which conducted a survey in 2023 and 2024 on the impact of AI on the work and income of literary translators. Responses were received from 31 of 36 associations and from approximately 1,500 literary translators across 34 associations. Seventy per cent of respondents consider AI either useless or barely usable in their work, while most find editing machine translations more time-consuming than translating from scratch without machine-generated input. About 69% believe that clients or publishers should be informed when AI-generated translations or AI tools are used.
In addition to the survey, Petrič presented two case studies of AI-generated translations. Both cases reveal the need for transparency and regulation, while also raising questions about library compensation for machine translation and the use of public funds to finance such products.
In response to the pressing issues raised by new technologies, the Slovenian Association of Literary Translators, together with six language associations and three departments at Slovenian universities, launched the campaign Easily translAIted. Easily misstAIted to support the preservation and development of language professions. The campaign aimed to raise public awareness of the value and visibility of language professions, examine the advantages and disadvantages of using AI in translation, and address ethical dilemmas, transparency, and copyright protection.
Shaping Interactions Between Humans, Nature, and Technology
Ivan Iovine, an Italian artist and researcher at the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, discussed three of his projects. Netnature features six robotic flowers that track viewers in real time and respond with LED lights in their blossoms to visitors’ facial expressions, creating an (artificial) emotional interaction. When six people engage with all six flowers simultaneously, the flowers perform synchronised movements – a performative choreography that metaphorically reflects the collective intelligence of nature.
Theodore stems from the observation that writing love letters is a disappearing activity, thus, the project humorously imagines a machine writing them for us. The interactive installation combines a microcomputer with an image-to-text system and a physical Olivetti Lettera 32 typewriter. Users upload a portrait photo and personal data via an app; over the next fifteen minutes, the machine generates a love letter amid mechanical sounds, while visitors observe the creation of “emotional” content.
Iovine’s latest project explores AI for understanding plant biosignals. Electrophysiological data are often noisy, so he uses AI to filter and identify patterns in plant responses to light, darkness, and touch. Since every plant has its own characteristics, each one requires a specific model. By creating his own AI models, he retains ownership and control over the system and data, enabling experimental freedom. His practice exemplifies an ethical, transparent, and autonomous approach to creative technology.
Solarpunk in New Media Art
Nejc Trampuž, a Slovenian photographer, multimedia artist, and environmental activist, employs the genre of solarpunk in many of his projects. Another Future Entirely (2022–2023) combines a short prose anthology of eco-fiction with a two-channel video projection. Trampuž used an earlier version of GPT to generate content fragments, which he later assembled into stories using a collage-based approach; generative AI was also used to visualise the narratives. The video projection features two entities discussing environmental issues and seeking possible solutions.
Trampuž’s animated short film Rooted in Code has won two top awards at international film festivals and is the first AI-assisted film produced in Slovenia. Among his other notable works is the computer game Solandium 2063, set in a post-apocalyptic future, in which players decide how to shape and develop their community sustainably while interacting with an embedded chatbot that responds to in-game events.
Trampuž describes his relationship with AI as ambivalent. On the one hand, he recognises its negative consequences such as the devaluation of creative labour, the environmental impact, the propagation of bias, stereotypes, and misinformation, social control and manipulation (techno-feudalism), identity theft, privacy breaches, and military applications. But he also sees its potential, as AI enables the creation of more complex works and new forms of art, while offering opportunities to democratise creative processes.
Green and Digital Approaches to Animation
Matija Šturm, Vice President of the Slovene Animated Film Association, presented two major international initiatives supporting the green transition. The CEE Animation network’s newsletter is the first and only one in the animated film industry to provide updates on sustainable practices. The international initiative Green Animation, meanwhile, was developed in response to increasing demands from public funders to meet sustainability standards. Given the fragmented nature of Central Europe and differing expectations across countries, such variation could hinder international collaboration, which is essential for animated film production. The Green Animation working group is therefore developing guidelines to standardise expectations and goals for green policies.
Although AI tools are increasingly used across animation production stages, shared standards and consistent practices have yet to be established. Šturm emphasised the need to integrate sustainable approaches into business planning. Rights holders and intellectual property owners should remain informed about digitalisation and AI trends. By engaging with digital transformation, which presents both challenges and significant opportunities for the industry, they can understand the global implications of change and develop effective medium- and long-term business strategies.
Machines Creating Music for Machines
Gwendolenn Sharp, founder and director of The Green Room (FR), presented findings from a study by the French music streaming platform Deezer showing that 28% of all music on streaming platforms is now fully AI-generated, amounting to approximately 30,000 new AI-generated tracks per day. The paradox is that listening on these platforms is also increasingly carried out by AI systems designed to inflate play counts. As algorithms tend to reinforce existing imbalances, Deezer has begun labelling AI-generated content and excluding it from algorithmic recommendations, thereby maintaining transparency and, to some extent, protecting artists’ rights.
While AI-generated music has become increasingly common on digital platforms, AI remains least capable of producing traditional or indigenous music – forms rooted in collective authorship, oral tradition, deep cultural context, and emotional expression. In these genres, human creativity remains irreplaceable.
The discussion among these sector representatives shifted to identifying common ground across fields. Several key themes recurred across the presentations, including transparency, the balance between automation and human autonomy, augmentation of human capabilities, data ownership and control, and the need for standards.
- Transparency
Tanja Petrič highlighted two key aspects of transparency. As large language models have been trained on unlawfully used copyrighted works, the datasets involved should be publicly disclosed, since only authors have the right to decide whether their work may be used. Transparency must also apply to cultural products themselves: books should be labelled if created using AI. Ultimately, readers have the right to know whether a work was produced by a human or a machine, so they can make an informed choice.
- Critical Thinking
When Ivan Iovine noticed his students using AI tools uncritically, he encouraged them to learn programming, understand AI’s underlying processes, and develop a critical approach to the tools they use. In his view, artists working with AI as a creative material must understand its mechanics, just as a painter masters colour and technique. Iovine fosters a process of deconstruction in his students, encouraging them not merely to use AI as a tool but to integrate it as a material within their artistic practice.
- Democratisation
Nejc Trampuž notes that AI tools democratise creation, enabling individuals to produce more complex works. This changes the dynamics of artistic production, shifting the focus from financial resources to the quality of ideas and their execution. However, democratisation also brings challenges, including job displacement. Many people will need to retrain or find new ways to participate in a production process that, with AI, is now fundamentally different from the traditional one. AI should not replace humans but should be used to open new creative possibilities.
- Audience
As an increasing proportion of cultural production is shaped by consumerism and algorithmic curation, Matija Šturm emphasises the importance of human curation, grounded in experience, judgement, and a sense of quality. Such content may not always align with the mainstream or use the latest technology, yet it deserves recognition for its quality. A diversity of stories, narratives, and artistic approaches is essential for educating audiences – especially young people – to become critical, skilled viewers. Consumers must learn to assess content not only for its substance but also for its execution, recognising and valuing work that transcends generic or recycled material.
Parting Reflections on AI
To close the forum, moderator Jana Renée Wilcoxen reflected on the key questions raised by the panel discussions to guide our further contemplation and use of AI: What should we automate, and what might we lose in the process? How can AI extend our capabilities without excluding us from the creative process? Who shapes AI tools, and can we create our own models? What is authentically human, and what truly moves us? Do new technologies genuinely reflect the human values and vision of the society in which we wish to live?
See also
- Nova Gorica–Gorizia, European Capital of Culture 2025
- Tribute to a Vision Film Festival
- Paving the Way for Green Animation and a Co-Development Mechanism
External links
Networks and associations
Organisations
- Artefacto – website
- Michael Culture Association – website
- The Green Room – website
- Danes je nov dan – website
Works and projects
- Easily translAIted. Easily misstAIted.
- Netnature at Speculum Artium
- Another Future Entirely
- Rooted in Code
- Solandium 2063
- Green Animation Guide
About the article
The text was written by Nika Mušič in October 2025 in the framework of the public procurement “Development and upgrade of information portals of the Ministry of Culture for the transition to the eKultura platform” in which Motovila Institute collaborates as a partner with Ljudmila Art and Science Laboratory.