The week's developments on the intersection of AI and creative content | 04.06.24

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This week we cover how OpenAI is set to premiere 5 short films at the Tribeca film festival, created by filmmakers with early access to Sora. Plus, all the details of AI used in Mad Max Furiosa, from smoothing the ageing process to creating unique ‘deep fake voices’ in the score. 

Meanwhile, get the lowdown on Instagram’s 'Made with AI' labels wrongly tagging minor Photoshop edits and the new tool ‘Showrunner’ that lets users create TV episodes from simple text prompts.

We cover these stories, plus Exactly.ai's funding boost, and French cinema’s take on AI, and much more.

— Charlie and the Research and Intelligence Team

PS. You are now able to sign up for the super early bird offer (75% off) to the CogX AI Summit in London on October 7th here.

Cinema and Industry

🎬 The use of AI in Furiosa. Director George Miller used AI to transition between child actor Browne and Taylor-Joy, blending their faces for continuity. At the start, Browne's appearance included about 35% of her features, increasing to 80% as she ages.

• AI was also used in the score. Composer Tom Holkenborg, known as JunkieXL, used the tech to combine drum rhythms and electric guitar sounds, resulting in unique ‘deep fake voices’.

🛸 Elon Musk would love Netflix’s Atlas – and that’s a problem. Jennifer Lopez stars as a techno-sceptic who learns to embrace an AI system that saves her life. Critics argue the film fails to address real-world concerns about AI, making it poorly timed techno propaganda.

🤖 The Beast: French cinema’s take on AI: Starring Léa Seydoux and George MacKay, Bertrand Bonello’s first foray into sci-fis an enthralling, dimension-hopping epic that riffs on incel culture, fortune tellers, and love in the internet age. 

🎬 Sony embracing AI to produce movies and shows in “more efficient ways” CEO Tony Vinciquerra announced that the company is "very focused on AI" to streamline production, despite ongoing negotiations with Hollywood's major crew union about AI usage.

🎥 OpenAI to show five short films at Tribeca Film Festival. The partaking filmmakers were educated about OpenAI’s tools, given early access to Sora and allowed to create the videos on their own terms. They were given just a few weeks to complete the projects.

Arts and Entertainment

🎨 Exactly.ai secures $4M to help artists use AI to scale up their output. The London-based startup allows artists to train AI on their own artwork. With 40,000 users, the platform offers a promising tool for artists to increase income and meet demand. 

📸 Instagram can't tell the difference between Photoshop and AI. The platform's 'Made with AI' labels are causing issues for creatives, wrongly tagging minor Photoshop edits as AI-generated content. Users are calling for system refinement to avoid confusion.

​​🎸 Will AI give us new McCartney and Dylan albums in 2060? With artists like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen having sold their catalogues, there's a fear that AI music could undermine their legacies, creating a future where AI-created songs flood the market. 

📺 New AI service allows viewers to create TV shows. Are we doomed? Showrunner, lets users generate episodes with simple prompts, prompting quality and originality concerns. Critics fear it will undermine creativity, leading to a flood of low-quality content.

In case you missed it

Listen to Ted Gioia, music historian and futurist, discuss AI’s threat to music:

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🚀 You are now able to sign up for the super early bird offer (75% off) to the CogX AI Summit in London on October 7th here.