Generative AI and Cultural Production in Nigeria

This sub-project examines how generative artificial intelligence is transforming Nigeria’s cultural industries, with a particular focus on Nollywood and the rapidly expanding creator economy. It investigates how filmmakers and content creators adopt AI technologies within contexts shaped by infrastructural constraints, informal labour, platformisation, and limited regulatory intervention.

Drawing on media industry studies, political economy, and postcolonial perspectives, the research explores AI’s implications for creativity, cultural labour, governance, and industrial power. It also analyses how global AI systems intersect with local innovation, including the emergence of Nigerian AI startups designed to address cultural specificity and representation. By foregrounding Nigerian perspectives, the project contributes to global debates on AI and cultural production while advancing more inclusive, Global South-centred understandings of technological transformation in the creative industries.