Runway AI Gen2

🌞 Good morning MIN3RS! Today, let's explore Generative AI and video.

In July, Hollywood’s actors and writers went on strike for the first time since 1960. AI has found several uses in the movie and television industry, from de-aging actors, analyzing patterns and behaviors of viewers on streaming platforms, bringing back the voices of late actors, and even helping stitch together entire movie trailers. 🎥🧠

However, allegations that studios and platforms plan "groundbreaking AI" to scan background performers, then only offer them a day's pay while the companies get to own the scans and use them for any project they want, crossed the rubicon. Ironically this has been presciently depicted in Charlie Brooker’s ‘Joan is Awful’ on Netflix - are they bluntly trying to tell us something? 🤔

Not what we don’t already know. Netflix is struggling to maintain their growth, so they will seek to drive down production costs at the expense of content owners while increasing consumer subscriptions. We see this not as a technology issue, but a business model that is continuing to be stressed and challenged in an increasingly fragmented market.

Generative AI in the film industry is a valuable tool for filmmakers and creators to enhance their projects, reduce production costs, and experiment with new ideas, enabling greater competition, innovation, and creativity.

https://runwayml.com/’s GEN-2 launched this year. You can play around with it to create between 4 and 15 seconds of text to video or video to video. Not quite competition for Hollywood yet, but in the foreseeable future, many of us will be able to become budding filmmakers with the assistance of generative AI. 🚀📽️

However, generative AI videos cannot fully replace genuine actors' emotions, creativity, and authenticity, which are critical for powerful storytelling. The film industry will continue to rely on human actors and creativity to produce unique and compelling content, ensuring that technology complements, rather than destroys it. 🎭🧠

Ultimately, whatever is produced, whether enhanced by AI or 100% generated by AI, the cream floats to the top as human beings discern what we like. 🥛👍

Who owns the content and how they are rewarded for its usage is a much bigger question. The growth of decentralised platforms enabled by web3 technology seeks to address this challenge - content creators can use blockchain technology to establish ownership and control over their content. Blockchain allows for the creation of tamper-proof, decentralised ledgers that can track ownership and distribution of digital assets, ensuring fair monetisation without the need for intermediaries. This helps to prevent issues such as censorship, copyright infringement, and unfair revenue sharing. 🔗💻🏆