theme parks and AI
For a while I was wondering, with all this talk of AI today, how will it change the theme park/entertainment landscape as a whole? we are already seeing the implications, with Disney ahead of the curve and doing a partnership with OpenAI and Olaf on the loose no thanks to it. How do you guy's think AI will be used to improve the immersivity, scale, and impressiveness of theme parks, and will it be a good or bad thing? I think, with AI on the rise and construction robots doing work a lot faster and cheaper, we could see considerable speed in large, Epic Universe scoped theme parks with cutting edge technology and interaction. What do you guys think?
We've already seen AI's impact on theme parks. Disney tried to force feed AI to guests through Genie/Genie+, which was an obvious play to manipulate guest behaviors within the parks. While that failed, mostly because it was junk that was quickly derailed by the Pandemic, Disney is going to launch a new initiative in the not too distant future to make admission prices more dynamic (like event tickets) that will almost certainly be backed by AI.
Today's announcement of the changing timeline for Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland is another obvious place for AI to rear its head as Disney announced the use of John Williams' classic music to be used in the land. I'm almost certain Disney is going to utilize AI here to weave together the classic themes instead of paying musicians and editors to assemble a new score for the land. I wouldn't be surprised to see Disney using AI even further with in-park music by tracking individual responses to various themes/scores to optimize the soundtrack in order to generate revenue (either through return visits or additional purchases - companies already do this, though it's always been based on aggregate data, not individual data that Disney could use here with their tracking technology).
AI will almost certainly be used more to create concept images and definitely for souvenirs. Disney has already incorporated AI into park security to reduce shrinkage while decreasing the amount of labor required to staff stores/eateries. AI has already been used for character interactions (Talking Mickey), and was heavily utilized at the Galactic Starcruiser. It will probably continue to be used at the resorts to collect data and optimize vacancy rates as well as provide guests with "personal touches" that could only be done through AI (I find these incredibly cold, but many people fall for them all the time, which generates return business).
I don't think AI will replace the core creativeness of the business, but some of the tasks that creative staff used to perform between major projects will be replaced with AI (like those concept drawings, editing scores, tweaking designs and attractions, and others), reducing the need for armies of people to perform that work to Disney standards. Most guests probably won't notice it much, but folks behind the scenes will know what's being touched by human hands and what's being done by AI and their ranks will be trimmed as a result.