Digital Catapult confirms participants for AI-focused startup accelerator for the creative industry

UK innovation agency Digital Catapult has set it sights on helping the creative industry grow by revamping its production processes using artificial intelligence (AI) through the launch of its latest startup initiative.

The organisation is offering nine British startups the opportunity to join its ranks and, with the support of the BBC and Amazon Web Services (AWS), develop and bring to market AI offerings that will change the way the country’s creative industries work.

“Each team will be awarded £50,000 to develop a prototype using AI to optimise, enhance and augment creative production, and address various challenges that will grow the UK’s creative economy,” the organisation said, in a statement.  

The initiative is designed to build on the success of a previous accelerator programme, known as MyWorld, which was delivered in tandem by Digital Catapult in collaboration with chip maker NVIDIA.

“This next phase of activity will help unlock opportunities for industrial growth and investment,” the Digital Catapult statement continued. “This will be achieved by exploring how AI can improve creative operations and content delivery and enrich the audience experience.”  

The participating startups have already been chosen, with three being assigned to work with the BBC to work on improving its audio output and audience engagement.

Among them is a startup called Fictioneers, which was set up in 2018 with funding from UK Research & Innovation, and offer a bespoke software platform that enables real-time story telling; and another called Black Goblin, billed as an audio technology specialist.

The last startup that will be working with the BBC is immersive technology design consultancy Octopus Immersive, but each of these startups will have a specific role to play in helping change the way the BBC delivers its content.

“Fictioneers will develop an AI-powered creative assistant that will enable teams to augment their development process, using the BBC Archives to explore interactive audio experiences, and address technical and conceptual challenges in production,” said Digital Catapult in a statement.

Black Goblin, meanwhile, will make its AI-driven sound design suite available to the BBC so that it can optimise sound design by automating the generation of high-quality sound effects from visual content, so the corporation’s audio engineers can create more diverse listening experiences, the statement continued.

“[Octopus Immersive] will create an AI-driven system using data from XR headsets to generate real-time, interactive visualisations of audio for more personalised music show experiences, allowing the BBC to deliver more immersive content to its audience,” it added.

AWS will be providing guidance to four of the participating startups, while also drawing on their collective expertise to find ways for it to meet the growing demand for more personalised content services from its customer base.

To this end, the cloud giant will work with Nulight Studio, which will use generative AI for video and audio production; and another startup called Superscout, which has an iPhone app that uses AI to help streamline location research and organise creative productions.

AWS will also be working with an outfit called Noods Radio, which gears its technology towards helping users discover new content through personalised recommendations and the use of chatbots; and another called Force of Habit. The latter’s AI technology allows video game developers to track and react to player experiences in real-time so they can tweak their marketing, quality assurance and support procedures.  

Other partcipants include Bristol-based Gritty Talent, which makes technologies designed to improve talent engagement, retention and progression in the creative sector; and Weaving Change, which is concerned with encouraging sustainability within the fashion industry through the creation of an AI-based algorithm that suggests personalised outfits from users existing wardrobes.

Alan Archer-Boyd, lead engineer of audio research and development at the BBC, said the initiative looks set to bring great benefits to the organisation.

“The BBC relies on a vibrant and innovative creative industry across the UK, and Bristol and the West of England is an important part of the industry,” said Archer-Boyd. “This challenge will be of great benefit to the region, and I look forward to working closely with the successful challenge entrants.”

Sarah Addezio, senior innovation partner at Digital Catapult, said the initiative is designed to recognise that the UK’s creative industries are a “critical enabler of employment, business growth and entertainment”, while looking for ways for AI to augment how the industry works.

“These solutions offer opportunities for businesses to utilise AI to improve operations, transform production processes, and solve inefficiencies, all while ensuring responsible and ethical considerations are taken into account,” said Addezio. “I’d like to congratulate the participating companies on their success in joining the programme.”