what if text prompts enabled anyone to make any type of movie or even an entire box set that's the promise of AI someone will make a movie just with your phone that will be watched by hundreds of millions of people so could this become the future of the movie making business in the great movie studios complicated in the country that popularized film a new generation of startups believe they are laying the foundations for a massive disruption to the movie making World let me show you how it works I'm going to start with a simple one which is tax to video by using generative AI companies like Runway can create videos in seconds that would normally take a visual effects artist days let's do a sky with clouds I can choose directions on style or cinematic choices or angles that I want to preview I really like this one it seems like the the light is coming out of the clouds the AI is scking that image and now generating a video out of that the AI is basically able to take that language and create consistent realistic and accurate videos that represent what you're writing you can see now the clouds are moving the sky is turning a bit dark a storm is coming these are short clips of for second that I've just generated the tax but I also put them together um in a small clip so let's see how that looks the AI is able to predict how objects might move you can specify with a brush what objects do you want to move within that picture so in this case I will select just the sky and you can see now the sky is moving I can select the boat and now the boat is going to move as well I can select hear a person walking on the street or the smoke from the cigarette or how things look from different angles in director mode you can move a camera almost like a video game top left down up zoom in zoom out and use that as the starting point for any story you want to tell the AI also allows actors to be transformed with a click you can use it for generating different worlds basically any world that you want so here I'm in my office in New York but let's say I want to go to One Enchanted Fantastical world so just clap my fingers like this and I'm now using this video plus a text prompt to transport myself into another world I can go into an anime world so I can do an switch between different universes just by using AI Runway is one of a number of companies hoping to make AI integral to the future of the movie business so how long will it be before your local Multiplex is showing feature films entirely generated by AI or producing an entire High box set for a streamer runways Founders are reluctant to give a time frame but they believe it's a case of when not if someone will make a movie just with your phone that will be watched by hundreds of millions of people it's going to change the landscape of film making and the landscape of Cinema however it is still early days for this technology in the movie business so far perhaps runway's most high-profile use has been enhancing scenes in big budget films like the visual effects in this scene from the Oscar winning everything everywhere all at once outside the commercial mainstream artists and filmmakers are experimenting with shorter films like this one about loneliness directed by Paul trillo what if we took different routes and if we took our time at different times then maybe things could have been different when it it comes to Blockbusters AI may be best suited to taking over genres like animation and sci-fi but what about realist films such as historical epics generative AI has yet to master the photorealistic video these kinds of films demand some of ai's output can look more like Salvador Dary than Martin Scorsese I do love that money sir we're still at the very early stages of this technology it's only a matter of time and until you get to a point where you won't be able to distinguish live action from generated video using AI with Google and meta also working on their own text to video generators AI could one day prove as transformative to the movie business as sound color or even the invention of the camera itself the camera was one of those moments in time where a technology and a scientific revolution creating a new art form we're at that work combination and moment in time where we're about to see a new kind of Cinema being born of course a world where video is made by giving text prompts to machines is not for everyone and may sound dystopian to some people there are fears that AI could wipe out entire livelihoods maybe even replace the human stars of the screen themselves they could take your image and do what they want AI but those in the business of AI argue it could unleash new kinds of creativity in movie making you're not going to become a painter just by having a paintbrush you're not going to become a filmmaker just by having AI the core aspect of the creative process is still about experimentation and these tools are tools for experimenting way faster than ever before by making Film Production more affordable AI could make the business more accessible and Democratic there could be fewer Hollywood Neo babies and more opportunities for Outsiders AI will change who gets to make movies more people out there will have the power of perhaps what big Hollywood Studios only have today and so the most important change will be for me who gets to tell stories and what kind of stories do we get to watch and see hi I'm Tom Wright I'm the tech and media editor of The Economist if you'd like to watch more about generative Ai and entertainment business please click on the link opposite and to watch more of our now next series click on the other link thanks again for watching and please don't forget to subscribe
