Past the Panic: What Really Matters in AI and Documentary Member Only

Most industry discussions about AI have focused considerable energy on whether AI is a threat or an opportunity, a tool or a menace—or headed straight into boosterism. Meanwhile, the actual terms of its integration into documentary workflow are being set without us: in editing suites, in platform algorithms, and in the compute infrastructure being built on extracted data and contested labor. For the past year, Kat Cizek (MIT Co-Creation Studio) and shirin anlen (WITNESS) have been tracking these developments through a monthly column in Documentary magazine and as part of the steering committee of the AI + Documentary Working Group. In this session, Cizek and anlen will present two case studies of AI in recent documentary practice, map the emerging field of movement-building in response to the AI industrial complex (from open-source alternatives to grassroots resistance against the environmental costs of data centers), and open the conversation to panelists working at the intersection of AI, documentary, and advocacy beyond North America.

This panel conversation is paired with a workshop ("AI Tools for Documentary Production") facilitated by Jorge Caballero and Anna Giralt Gris, which will demonstrate how documentarians can use AI to create research, investigative, and workflow tools that work for us, by us. Conferencegoers are encouraged to attend both if they're interested in the practical and ethical applications of AI.

Moderator: Kat Cizek (MIT Co-Creation Studio)
Panelists: shirin anlen (WITNESS), Anna Giralt Gris (Artefacto), and A.X. Mina (Archival Producers Alliance)