AI TV Series: Partly because of its ability to transform processes in various industries and partly because of the marketing that accompanies it, GenAI is now everywhere. Beyond IT and digital companies, the broad fields of art, entertainment, music, and film are beginning to come to terms with the changes brought about by the possibility of generating large amounts of content quickly and for free. The fierce will to resist the spread of AI was one of the causes of the strike by actors, who blocked Hollywood productions for 118 days before reaching an agreement with the studios. There is a feeling that the protest that ended last November could be repeated in the future, as the rapid evolution of technology opens up scenarios full of unprecedented alternatives based on generative artificial intelligence.

A 20-word prompt is enough to get an episode

An example of what could happen in the future, but is, in fact, already happening, is Showrunner, a platform created by Fable Simulation, a San Francisco startup specialising in the creation of AI content.

OK, but why has this startup come to the fore? Imagine being able to create the TV show you’ve always dreamed of, unleashing your creative juices to produce the work you’ve been keeping in a drawer for years because no one ever believed in you. Until now, it has been a dream for aspiring scriptwriters; from now on, it will be possible to use Showrunner through the action of GenAI. All it takes to create the script you want is a prompt of at least twenty words, indicating your preferred genre and giving specific instructions for characters, dialogue and shot types.

As with the generation of text and images, the more detail you provide in the prompt (up to 100 words), the more specific the final result will be. From noir to fantasy, from satire to comedy, Showrunner allows you to create episodes from 2 to 16 minutes long. A length that will increase as the system develops.

Still, in the early stages of the project, the platform prefers short, self-contained stories rather than TV series, which is the next step. At the moment, the platform is limited to animation and no music, creating individual scenes that are then combined to create the short work with still slightly grainy images, simple conversations and standard viewing angles. However, the young company’s intention is to demonstrate what can be done with generative AI and how easy it is, for example, to choose the theme and character type. If you choose a cyberpunk story, you can have a detective protagonist with a Blade Runner leaning. This is a way of combining different characteristics and achieving unprecedented content.

Fable Simulation was able to do this by combining the large language model created in-house with ChatGpt-4 and Stable Diffusion, with training that the company claims was carried out only on publicly available data. In this way, the startup has produced stories such as Exit Valley, a satire on the dynamics of Silicon Valley that mimics the style and graphics of South Park.

The first steps on the new film production front

“Our goal is to become the Netflix of generative artificial intelligence, giving everyone the ability to create an episode of their favourite TV series, or one they’ve just finished watching, with a few simple clicks. With the ability to specify specific details and less precise information to leave the field open for generative AI,” said Edward Saatchi, CEO of Fable Simulation.  

With the platform in the alpha phase, interested parties can sign up to a waiting list to test the service, which is free for now, as the startup aims to collect and run a large amount of content to demonstrate how well the Showrunner can do its job. Regardless of how it works, there is no doubt that having a platform that can write, voice and animate characters to create complete stories is a game changer. Both because of the ease with which anyone will be able to create content and because it opens up a path that will be followed by other companies, who will, in turn, offer different services, broadening the scope, the impact and thus the potential end result.

Freedom of expression often clashes with the natural tendencies of human use. For this reason, Fable Simulation has already set limits on themes and terms to avoid dangerous pitfalls such as violence, racism and pornography. At the same time, the hope is to avoid falling into the traps of GenAI, as happened with ‘Nothing Forever‘, the TV series created by GPT-3 and broadcast on Twitch until one of the protagonists made a joke about transsexuals, provoking protests from the public and resulting in the show being taken off the air. Given GenAI’s limitations and hallucinations, if Showrunner can avoid such slips, he will be well on his way.