Greetings, Dear Reader,
I may or may not have a Super Bowl take in the near future, perhaps tomorrow. Perhaps not. We’ll see how the details behind the Bad Bunny halftime show unfold. For now, I’m holding my tongue. I didn’t watch it. Not really out of disdain. I just wasn’t interested.
In other news: I’ve got jury duty this morning, proving yet again I was foolish to never buy a MAGA hat. So we’ve got to get this one in, and in fast.
Up next, we’ve got …
SAY GOODBYE TO HOLLYWOOD
For better or worse, ultimately probably worse, Hollywood as we know it is potentially in its final chapter.
Snippets of mock movie scenes are popping up all over the web lately. Here’s a link leading you to a few. These are entirely “prompt-produced,” meaning humans plugged narratives and descriptions into artificial intelligence platforms designed to produce video, and these movie scenes popped out the other end.
The technology is still a little janky. It has continuity problems. You can spot the issues if you watch closely enough. But it’s only a matter of time.
Say goodbye to Hollywood.
How do I know it’s going to disrupt the hell out of the most annoying group of people on earth?
Did you see the Dunkin’ Donuts commercial last night?
The ad featured several known stars in iconic roles from the 90s.
It’s not fully known yet, I believe, if the ad was 100% AI or just AI enhanced, but there’s no doubt the actors (and actresses) were fiddled with, if not entirely generated based on prompts. Some articles called it “de-aging,” which is what Scorsese did to some of his (ancient) cast for The Irishman.
The “Good Will Dunkin’” ad was great, but somewhat unsettling, and more than likely prophetic.
Producing movies and AAA TV shows has become so expensive and so stovepiped that the entire industry is basically begging for disruption. It also empowers some of the most immoral, stupid and annoying people on Earth.
Luckily, AI is probably coming for music too. I’m looking at you, Billie Eilish.
Unluckily, we’re not entirely sure what this new technology will give rise to.
It will, like the internet before it did to print, democratize moviemaking. Perhaps the new stars will be the people behind the prompts. The prompt geniuses who can make the bot sing and dance so perfectly that they become superstars themselves. Perhaps the fictional characters will become stars with their own entirely digitally based personas.
Perhaps “acting” as we know it will retreat back to the stage, and perhaps humans wanting to go out for a night of entertainment will do what they did before moving pictures. Maybe we’ll go back to putting a premium on genuine, in-person connections.
Wouldn’t that be something?
That’s it for the free portion of today’s State of the Day.
The full subscriber edition continues below with my forbidden takes.