Ethical and societal challenges to the adoption of generative AI in communication.

This paper builds up on secondary data analysis to articulate a narrative review describing the challenges to the adoption of artificial intelligence tools for audiovisual communication, identifying issues in regard to ethics, control, transparency and the legal framework. We make a critique of the term and delimit the research to generative neural-network based computational processes. The problems are examined in three proposed areas: the input, which includes the training material; the process, which deals with the systems necessary to run such services, their development and control; and the output, where the use of generated artifacts is analyzed. International legal and judiciary approaches are reviewed in each step, as they are fundamental for incoming unfoldings of the field. Finally, some hypothetical future scenarios based on current AI debates are imagined, which help readers foresee possible situations regarding the use of generative systems. We conclude that although the adoption of such technologies is unstoppable, their use might come with some limitations, regulations or conditions. More importantly, the general use of AI tools will convey a shift in the way we produce and consume information. While we can clearly foresee dramatic productivity increases, it is not clear how this production will be accepted by society. On one hand, studies already revealed that subjects rank AI-generated content higher than the one made by humans. On the other hand, the plethora of artificial media might provoke an overall rejection of the digital world.