Ottawa filmmaker uses AI to accelerate life-saving content

Firdaus Kharas received an urgent request a few months ago from community leaders in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Could he create an informational video about safe funerals, to help combat the spread of Ebola?

Speed matters in these situations. Chocolate Moose Media, founded by Mr. Kharas, produced the segment in just six days with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). “If I had taken 10 days, 400 more people could have died,” he says.

The video was part of a series – others dealt with prevention, containment and stigma – and Mr. Kharas made them available for free, for anyone to view, download, broadcast or share.

In the past, it could take weeks or more for Chocolate Moose Media to produce video. The Ottawa-based company uses styles such as animation and documentaries to drive social change. For many people in film and television, AI can feel like a threat. Mr. Kharas sees it differently.

He uses AI as a research assistant, production tool, storyboard generator and script reviewer. The aim is not to replace the human judgment behind the work, he says, but to move faster on public health messages he believes can save lives.

Since 1995, Chocolate Moose has created thousands of videos, from a Peabody-award-winning “Three Amigos” campaign on HIV/AIDS prevention, to a recent collaboration with the University of Ottawa on perimenopause at work. Mr. Kharas has earned wide recognition, including the Order of Canada and an honourary degree from Carleton University.

Chocolate Moose has created content for organizations such as the United Nations and UNICEF, and it has a standing supply arrangement with the Government of Canada to create informational videos. Paid work helps the company subsidize low-budget videos or videos that Mr. Kharas creates voluntarily.

He says AI can significantly cut down on time and costs. Mr. Kharas might go through 18 drafts of a storyboard before landing on the final version. With AI, he can rapidly test ideas before paying an artist to produce the final work.

AI has also helped Mr. Kharas with research. For the safe-funeral video, he prompted ChatGPT to review who had used his earlier Ebola videos, created during the West African outbreak in 2013. He learned that Catholic Relief Services had distributed them widely. “I realized that religious leaders are trusted interlocutors in Africa, and AI informed me about that,” Mr. Kharas says.

As a result, he added a pastor to his most recent video.

While he relies on AI for certain tasks, he says it can’t write the kind of empathetic scripts he feels his work requires. For the safe-funeral video, for example, Mr. Kharas knew it wouldn’t be enough just to tell bereaved people not to touch or wash a body to prevent the disease from spreading — he’d have to make an emotional bid.

“Saying that this is an act of love that you’re giving your dead relative or friend is something that AI could not possibly have done. It’s a human emotion,” Mr. Kharas says.

Unlike other media companies, Chocolate Moose doesn’t retain intellectual property. If it can help his work circulate more widely, Mr. Kharas will encourage other organizations to put their own logos on his videos or use them as inspiration. “If somebody wants to scrape it, please go ahead and inform your AI system on my work,” he says.

Across sectors, AI is ushering in “a period of disruption,” says Walid Hejazi, professor of Economic Analysis and Policy at the Rotman School of Management of the University of Toronto. While AI might be assisting Chocolate Moose, he cautions that many people online are being fooled by AI-generated content. “Misinformation can spread rapidly,” Mr. Hejazi says.

Mr. Kharas is aware of the challenge, and he is working on a video series about AI safety. Despite the concerns about the technology, he says he believes AI will help society more than it will hinder it, and points to his videos as a case in point.

“These issues are terribly important,” Mr. Kharas says. “I’m going to get [my videos] out as fast as possible, in as many languages as possible, with the help of AI.”