My new AI-assisted short film is here. Kira explores human cloning and the search for identity in today’s world. It took nearly 600 prompts, 12 days (during my free time), and a $500 budget to bring this project to life. The entire film was created by one person using a range of AI tools, all listed at the end. Enjoy. ~ Hashem

One thing I hadn't thought of before, that I read someone commenting on the video I posted: If--when the technology gets there--everyone starts using AI to generate their own custom Star Wars movie, or a personally-spec'd old west TV series, or a rom-com with AI versions of their two favorite actors, then we stand to lose the traditional forms of these things as common cultural touchstones. Sure, a lot of it will be shared and passed around, just like fanfic has been for ages, but it will splinter audiences even further than the current glut of streaming entertainment has. We could become even more isolated from each other. Kind of a depressing thought.

The inevitable has arrived. On Thursday, AI company Fable will launch Showrunner, a new streaming service touted as “the Netflix of AI.” The platform will allow users to create scenes or full episodes of animated shows, designed from scratch or building upon what someone else has already “created.” Amazon has already invested in the enterprise (for an undisclosed, but presumably large sum). Next, Fable hopes to recruit studios to put their intellectual property on the platform.

According to a report from Business Insider, Showrunner already has a deal with one unnamed studio and is in talks with others, including Disney. The idea here is that instead of generative AI just stealing IP, this version will be sanctioned so that the studios get a cut of the money. (Showrunner content will be free to watch, but it’ll eventually cost $10 to $20 a month for “credits” to “create” scenes.) Creators will also get “If people make their own show on Showrunner, they’ll get a share of the revenue, around 40%, if another user builds on it,” per BI. “The revenue would be based on what people spend in credits to build on top of an existing show.”

Showrunner will supposedly allow creators to insert their own characters and “create” their own sequels, spin-offs, side quests, or whatever within those story worlds. So if, say, Fable does strike a deal with Disney, Fable CEO Edward Saatchi envisions that users could experience an interactive Star Wars world (per BI, “keeping within Disney’s creative guidelines,” of course). Saatchi sees these “playable” TV shows akin to video games. (It sounds a lot like visual fanfiction, right down to the fact that Saatchi says a lot of the beta testers like making self-insert characters.) “Hollywood streaming services are about to become two-way entertainment: audiences watching a season of a show [and] loving it will now be able to make new episodes with a few words and become characters with a photo,” Saatchi told Variety. “Our relationship to entertainment will be totally different in the next five years.”

There are apparently “guardrails” built into the model to prevent offensive or illegal behavior, or copyright infringement, as well as to protect the integrity of the stories (i.e., the system can supposedly evaluate whether a character would “really be doing” something that a user makes it do). According to Variety, Showrunner will launch with two original “shows”: Exit Valley, “a Family Guy-style TV comedy set in ‘Sim Francisco’ satirizing the AI tech leaders Sam Altman, Elon Musk, et al,” and Everything Is Fine, “in which a husband and wife, going to Ikea, have a huge fight — whereupon they’re transported to a world where they’re separated and have to find each other.” Will AI-generated playable TV be the next big thing? Will our world’s water supply dry up due to the intense demand AI puts on data centers around the world before we ever find out? Stay tuned!