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Do we need another [HB]ollywood blockbuster? Apparently not if it is up to the future of AI:
...goal of having Benjamin [the AI] "write, direct, perform and score" this short film within 48 hours, without any human intervention...
Maybe it is not perfection yet, but it looks like reality is slowly catching up with science fiction. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/06/this-wild-ai-generated-film-is-the-next-step-in-whole-movie-puppetry
Two years ago, Ars Technica hosted the online premiere of a weird short film called Sunspring, which was mostly remarkable because its entire script was created by an AI. The film's human cast laughed at odd, computer-generated dialogue and stage direction before performing the results in particularly earnest fashion.
That film's production duo, Director Oscar Sharp and AI researcher Ross Goodwin, have returned with another AI-driven experiment that, on its face, looks decidedly worse. Blurry faces, computer-generated dialogue, and awkward scene changes fill out this year's Zone Out, a film created as an entry in the Sci-Fi-London 48-Hour Challenge—meaning, just like last time, it had to be produced in 48 hours and adhere to certain specific prompts.
The result is both awful, funny and impressive. Especially with the background knowledge that it was done by an AI in just 48 hours and limited resources. Maybe we are on the path of robotic entertainment sooner than later. You'll know who'll be the boss when you start hearing discussions for the AI's necessity for copyright ownership of the AI's creation.
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Tuesday June 12 2018, @07:17PM (1 child)
We talk about them being derivative, and they are, but... most machine-generated stuff is purely derivative, no outside influence, only past examples to draw on. Most human made media are not actually 100% derivative. They are at most 99% derivative.
For example: A movie with Romeo and Juliet exactly as traditionally portrayed, all period clothes and traditional stage direction, except one scene they use a cellphone now instead of shouting up to a balcony. Nevermind if this is a good idea, or even deliberate (maybe they couldn't afford the staging and it was a last minute improvisation). Maybe this small change wildly changes the context: Romeo can now safely speak to Juliet from the safety of home instead of venturing through dangerous streets.
If this is the first instance of this technology in such a context, no AI would ever have attempted it, never "imagined" such a thing; if ordered to make Romeo and Juliet, most that I have seen would simply copypaste differently staged versions with slight modifications to try to match whatever objective it was given (like "sexier" or whatever).
That said, I think media are derivative in many ways and it's not necessarily bad. Science is very derivative most of the time and it works out pretty great. Each 1% that isn't derivative is a tiny step forward. I worry that purely machine-made content being only derivative is the problem, with no steps forward at all.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday June 12 2018, @07:27PM
Actually, cell phones in modernized Shakespeare is also more derivative than you think: I watched an R.S.C. production of "The Merchant of Venice" that did exactly that in the 1990's.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.