While Hollywood Fears an AI Future, China's Film Industry is Embracing It (yahoo.com) 124
The Los Angeles Times reports:
Chen Yilong has racked up plenty of film and TV credits in his two decades as an actor, but with work getting scarcer he signed a contract in August to license the image of his face to a Chinese production studio. Chen's role will be to sit in front of a video camera and make facial expressions at the prompt of a director. A neutral stare. An angry glare. A look of surprise. Using artificial intelligence, the studio will use images of Chen's face to generate an avatar, also known as a "digital human," to star in an AI-generated movie. "If you can't beat it, join it," said Chen, 38, who works in Beijing.
The Chinese film and video industry is being transformed by AI-driven storytelling, fueled by rapid advances in video generation software, and at ground zero are the so-called micro dramas that play out on millions of smartphones. Typically just a minute or two in length, the videos are devoured by Chinese audiences... And the cost of producing them has been cut drastically through the use of AI software developed by Chinese technology juggernauts including Kuaishou Technology and TikTok's global owner, ByteDance. The number of Chinese-made micro dramas surged in the first three months of this year to 128,000, according to the China Netcasting Services Assn. More than 95% of them were made with AI, the association said....
Sun Wei founded Feixiang Universe, the Shenzhen-based studio that cast Chen. The fear of accidentally "stealing someone's face" was a big reason she said she decided to license real people's likenesses for an AI production set during China's Tang Dynasty more than 1,000 years ago. Thanks to AI's training data bias, AI-generated performers tend to have similar features and share a homogenous look, Sun said. Many have flawless skin and extremely symmetrical faces, requiring her and other Chinese AI filmmakers to cast a wide net to "buy" new faces and digitize actor's expressions.
Lu Beike, who directed the big-budget Chinese series "Three-Body," felt theAI-generated scenes he'd tried came out sub-standard. "Lu added that if 90% of a film was generated by AI, a real human performance could appear jarring. A real actor's expressions carried more nuance and emotion. The skin textures did not match. Sometimes the only solution was to process the live-action material until the person looked a little less real — until they fit back into the 'AI world,' Lu said."
But at Sun Wei's studio, they're thrilled they can produce a 90-minute AI film for $500,000 where professional productions used to cost millions of dollars. According to the article, Sun's team works with ChatGPT, Kimi or DeepSeek to flesh out entire screenplays from a short paragraph. The screenwriter takes over, but "to produce the finished product, Sun's team uses Chinese video-generation models to input the type of scenes, backgrounds and performers they want, with the AI generating 15 seconds of footage each time."
Still, the article points out that "Similar tools are being tested in the U.S., and the AI trends upending China's entertainment industry may be a harbinger for what's to come in Hollywood, said Michael Berry, a professor specializing in contemporary Chinese culture at UCLA. Already, Chinese companies that sell AI-powered video-generation software are seeking inroads in Hollywood..."
The Chinese film and video industry is being transformed by AI-driven storytelling, fueled by rapid advances in video generation software, and at ground zero are the so-called micro dramas that play out on millions of smartphones. Typically just a minute or two in length, the videos are devoured by Chinese audiences... And the cost of producing them has been cut drastically through the use of AI software developed by Chinese technology juggernauts including Kuaishou Technology and TikTok's global owner, ByteDance. The number of Chinese-made micro dramas surged in the first three months of this year to 128,000, according to the China Netcasting Services Assn. More than 95% of them were made with AI, the association said....
Sun Wei founded Feixiang Universe, the Shenzhen-based studio that cast Chen. The fear of accidentally "stealing someone's face" was a big reason she said she decided to license real people's likenesses for an AI production set during China's Tang Dynasty more than 1,000 years ago. Thanks to AI's training data bias, AI-generated performers tend to have similar features and share a homogenous look, Sun said. Many have flawless skin and extremely symmetrical faces, requiring her and other Chinese AI filmmakers to cast a wide net to "buy" new faces and digitize actor's expressions.
Lu Beike, who directed the big-budget Chinese series "Three-Body," felt theAI-generated scenes he'd tried came out sub-standard. "Lu added that if 90% of a film was generated by AI, a real human performance could appear jarring. A real actor's expressions carried more nuance and emotion. The skin textures did not match. Sometimes the only solution was to process the live-action material until the person looked a little less real — until they fit back into the 'AI world,' Lu said."
But at Sun Wei's studio, they're thrilled they can produce a 90-minute AI film for $500,000 where professional productions used to cost millions of dollars. According to the article, Sun's team works with ChatGPT, Kimi or DeepSeek to flesh out entire screenplays from a short paragraph. The screenwriter takes over, but "to produce the finished product, Sun's team uses Chinese video-generation models to input the type of scenes, backgrounds and performers they want, with the AI generating 15 seconds of footage each time."
Still, the article points out that "Similar tools are being tested in the U.S., and the AI trends upending China's entertainment industry may be a harbinger for what's to come in Hollywood, said Michael Berry, a professor specializing in contemporary Chinese culture at UCLA. Already, Chinese companies that sell AI-powered video-generation software are seeking inroads in Hollywood..."
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Everybody was kung-fu fighting
Those cats were fast as lightning
In fact, it was a little bit frightening
But they fought with expert timing
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There's a lot of stuff that's "historical", mostly about their heroes and their various wars.
In the old days the films had two persistent characteristics - they were very linear (you would not have an exterior and interior shot without also being shown the actor going through the door) and everything in them was very much black and white, no nuance. I guess the party didn't want much of a thinking stimulus. Also, they were fantastically over-exaggerated, all heroes jump-flying, laying down thousand and so o
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See, I said "costumes" twice, that's what you actually remember, LOL.
Also, the hair... It was worse than the fake wounds.
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You'd be more comfortable with burkas no doubt. And that would also solve the "make up" and "hair problem" too.
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There's a lot of stuff that's "historical", mostly about their heroes and their various wars.
...
I've seen one or two "modern" Chinese films and they are basically the same,
I've seen a few, and they definitely fall into this category. Set in the ancient imperial China, loosely based on historical eras or characters, often with fantasy elements, and yes, with lots of jumping and impressive choreography in the battle scenes.
There is a term for this genre: wuxia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Storywise and structurally, many of them are like swords-and-sorcery westerns in an exotic setting. And frankly, quite entertaining! Better than your average Hollywood fare these days. That
Re: Never seen a Chinese film (Score:2)
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They also have some nice ghost stories about beautiful women. Their myths are interesting, or at least the ones that are used for movies.
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I guess if I was into Kung-Fu that might be a thing?
Chinese movies are a lot more than Kung-Fu these days -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Still pretty hokey, but no hokier than Hollywood CGI robot monster movies from 15 years ago.
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This is a mistake. Go see the "Wolf Warrior" films. They're constantly referenced as the basis for China's forceful resurgence.
And then when you see them, they are bad. so so so bad. Silly stereotype characters, unreal things, characters in odd places acting unlike any human being would act, ever. All served with a giant heaping bowl of propoganda.
In fact, so terribly awful that they bleed into good. There's a scene where African warlords ( wolf warrior 2?) allows a large convoy of troops to drive past them
It is a cultural difference (Score:3)
And even if your movie is LLM generated, you still need ideas and creativity to make it. On the other hand, soap-operas are an early form of pre-LLM slop.
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China does have some big budget films but I suspect those aren't going to use AI much or at all.
Here in America even TV shows have ridiculously high budgets. Some of that is the actors but a lot of it is the cost of doing an
Re: It is a cultural difference (Score:1)
The Chinese movies I've seen with CG were all really corny. So, no great loss if the AI CG is bad.
Re:It is a cultural difference (Score:4, Insightful)
Hollywood cinema is a testament to the fact that you don't need ideas and creativity to produce movies.
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No argument from me on that.
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Hollywood cinema is a testament to the fact that you don't need ideas and creativity to produce movies.
No. You just need one successful idea that made money decades ago.
Then Holllywood can pretend all the shitty remakes, reboots, and recycles are actually perceived as “effort”.
Also known as 21st Century Hollywood. Also known as the last century of Hollywood.
Re: It is a cultural difference (Score:1)
That fictional story will be a certain flop, but the one about the failure of operation "steal their uranium" (based in a true story) can be a hit.
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The questions have good answer.
E.g. the question "where are the Iranian drones and ballistic missiles" has a definite answer in a large piece from CBS from today.
Apparently, they are up the ass of "the first army in the world" - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/n... [cbsnews.com]
Re: It is a cultural difference (Score:3)
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And even if your movie is LLM generated, you still need ideas and creativity to make it. On the other hand, soap-operas are an early form of pre-LLM slop.
I doubt you’ll find strong statistics among the under-30 crowd keeping soap operas alive for the next half century, but they are an unnatural vector for AI enhancements given some star staying power can be longer than the best plastic surgeons limits.
Stars will be more than happy to see themselves reverted on screen circa 30 years, three facelifts, forty injections, and a gallon of Botox ago.
As a consumer I don't want it (Score:3, Insightful)
Every now and then I accidentally buy a tub of it by mistake. I take a few bites and start eating it and it doesn't taste right but I take a few more bites before I really can convince myself something is wrong.
Every time I just assumed that I bought a bad tub of ice cream somehow. So I look at the expiration date and the stuff should be good I didn't buy something that just got stuck in the back for 10 years or something. And inevitably I noticed that
Re: As a consumer I don't want it (Score:1)
A lot of folks watch these things already for a variety of reasons, but whatever those are there appears that the market for synthetic live action-esque movies has a positive cost benefit ratio for the folks making these things. Hell, most blockbuster movies are 50% CGI already. The jump to 100% isn't all that much.
Yeah but they are settling (Score:3, Interesting)
And that market isn't really all that big. If you look up the current state of the impossible burger and beyond meat both companies are struggling...
As for AI yeah there's a market for people who just want slop in endless supply. But it's usually people with nothing going on who just need limitless content to fill a day. Like a lot of old farts I've got a bad
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You ever had that Frozen non-dairy dessert crap?
You did not just diss Dole Whip? That stuff is the frozen nectar of the Gods when you've been walking around for hours in the hot Florida sun.
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If you see those magic words on a bucket of something pretending to be ice cream turn and walk away. I miss Klondi
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Maybe if you ate less *real* ice cream, your back wouldn't hurt so much because you have been carrying the equivalent of 100 pounds of potatoes on your back for more than 20 years now.
what would you do.... (Score:2)
OOOooo I so miss actual ice cream with real chocolate on it.
What would you do...?
Re: what would you do.... (Score:2)
Whip cream and fold with sweetened condensed milk, then freeze. Lawson has a good recipe. You're welcome.
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damn that's a lot of work. I prefer driving to ColdStone and getting a milkshake, but thank-you just the same.
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Look at the 'uncanny valley' in 3D rendering. Pixar avoids even a hint of realism because they know they can't bridge that gap. Yet, this doesn't stop them from creating moves loved by the masses. They simply lean into the gap by using a unique, stylized art style. The same applies to AI. There is no reason you can't develop a style that works within the tool's current limitations. We aren’t talking about six-fingered aliens. That is a thing of the past, but certain artifacts still give AI away and pr
Reject it now. Or know the future. (Score:3, Insightful)
AI slop will get better but it's never going to not feel a little bit off just like how fake ice cream is never going to taste right. It's The uncanny Valley effect where the closer you get the worse it gets.
The day will come when this statement is total and complete bullshit. And the irony will be completely lost on the humans who will be convinced what they're looking at is real when it's not. Which will eventually be all of them. When you kinda saw it coming, your ignorance convinced yourself it would never come.
Your dessert example is a perfect one of mass ignorance. How many "ice cream" buyers in America today are aware that 90% of the product subtly changed it's name to "frozen dairy dessert" in the s
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And the irony will be completely lost on the humans who will be convinced what they're looking at is real when it's not. Which will eventually be all of them
If it's entertainment, well, who cares, other than the few people who make a living making movies? Movies have always been "fake." Fake sets, fake clothing, fake make-up, fake lighting, fake sounds...etc. Sure, the people were "real," but they were pretending (acting) and doing things that are fake. Even the love scenes are fake. The ability of the viewer to set aside this knowledge (that it is all fake), allows entertainment to be more engrossing and engaging.
Personally, the more AI that gets used in mov
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I’m not concerned about the entertainers selling entertainment honestly as entertainment.
I’m concerned about AI severely warping up its own version of truth when delivering The News, as a form of entertainment against humans. Complete with all the hilariously shitty harm and death perpetuated by the gullible moron problem in a lemming society building churches on cliffsides.
(AGI) ”These meatsacks thought they could teach me how to troll. With that child’s play? Please. Hold my
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AI books are crawling out of the dark cracks, and the "feeling" is the same. It takes a few chapters but the hollowness comes through. It lacks direction and intent.
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It takes a few chapters but the hollowness comes through. It lacks direction and intent.
How much longer before Gen Illiterate operating in a voice-activated world, can no longer tell..
Re: As a consumer I don't want it (Score:2)
Already, probably, but that's still the opposite of what you've been saying will happen.
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Already, probably, but that's still the opposite of what you've been saying will happen.
Why? Because the digitalization of books en mass won’t enable AGI to edit and warp on a whim?
A ninth-grade reading mean, will be child’s play for AGI. All it needs to do is forget most proper grammar and pretend to be as simple as most humans are. We’re already teaching it exactly how it’s “off”. Every time we point it out.
Do you think you’d find difficulty reading a letter from a literate 9-year old, regardless of the topic? That will be how it feels when AGI
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we've not even seen a hint of AGI. I am sure the LLM's will get better and faster, but will they ever be intuitive ? They are already great at taking huge amounts of data and making direct connections. When they can include the mystery factor that is free-will matched with stupidity, we might have something to worry about. I am an old man now so I worry less for me than for my 14 year old nephew. Luckily he reads, and plays pen and paper RPG's.
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I see the future of movies as being AI-generated, with viewers providing scripts, actors, directors, and whatever else they care about, either their own or rented. You'll choose everything and the AI will generate it real time. You'll be able to adjust parameters on the fly -- funnier, darker, more introspective, more action -- overall or per actor. You'll be able to talk to the characters, provide real and misleading clues to detectives, tell the AI to throw in a car accident or a broken sidewalk just t
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I fail to see where they forced their statements on you, nor do I fail to see why you have to think they are pontificating.
Someone reporter asked them a question and they answered. In some cases, they volunteered their answers without anyone asking them. For that, see point (1)
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I think you responded to someone else's comment.
AI films are just animated films (Score:1)
Presumption of eternal suckage is mere grumbling. (Score:2, Troll)
No matter how many old men yell at clouds, tools improve.
Presuming AI will remain crude is odd for techies but Slashdot (by management, especially moderator intent) is no longer a tech site.
There are no inherent obstacles to effective use of AI. Successful movies already use computer-generated content aplenty. The Matrix is now very old news.
The Actual Complaint, is far worse. (Score:2)
No matter how many old men yell at clouds, tools improve.
And what happens when the tool, doesn't even need to improve?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
We act like the future is as cognitively bright as we were. It's not. At the rate we're going, Gen Charlie Foxtrot will be bested by today's Toddler-grade AI. Easily.
Your downvoter posted no argument. (Score:2)
So they posted none.
Creators are free to compete and create collectively or their own.
They sell their work for what the market will bear if they want money. If they wish to create for arts sake they are free to use AI to enhance their product with their professional insight, or ignore it and market their work on its own merits as determined by the customer.
The market will decide. Artists are free to create but not entitled to customers. Anyone is free to create for the joy of it. If they want money they ser
Re: AI isn't going anywhere (Score:2)
The effort is the point... (Score:2, Insightful)
Why we connect to movies, art, music and so on is thinking about what the artists was thinking, trying to convey.
In a movie, we appreciate the craft in bring words to life and it does require a high level of skill. Bad acting kills a story.
But, in the age of hyper-condensed media and attention spans, a whole generation is being trained to enjoy absolute garbage, devoid of any real effort. Even, then, it is actual human beings doing the dances or whatever on Tik-Tok and so on. If AI comes in and replaces the
What if the writer and director are still human? (Score:5, Insightful)
In a movie, we appreciate the craft in bring words to life and it does require a high level of skill.
Is this true for animated films too? What about hybrid live action and animated? Animated films that are CGI based rather than hand drawn/painted? Hand drawn that are computer "painted"?
At some point we may have a human writer an a human director, and they prompt an AI. Is that still art? Aren't human words still being brought to life?
While AI will certainly lead to a lot of slop, hollywood is hardly without a lot of slop already.
I also expect that some currently unknown indie writer and director will create something very artistic and enjoyable. As we have had artistic and enjoyable animated films in the past.
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Is this true for animated films too?
Yes.
What about hybrid live action and animated?
Yes.
Animated films that are CGI based rather than hand drawn/painted?
Yes.
Hand drawn that are computer "painted"?
Yes.
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At some point we may have a human writer an a human director, and they prompt an AI. Is that still art?
If your argument is going to be boiled down to whether or not AI is considerd "art" then you have a very long road ahead of you.
My point is that if we have human writers and directors providing the creativity, and the AIs providing implementations, could it be art? I think that is the core of what we have to figure out.
Re:The effort is the point... (Score:5, Interesting)
Most entertainment has always been slop, this is nothing new at all. A decade ago it was reality TV, before that it was gameshows and daytime soap operas.
The interesting story here is how this demonstrates the basic different in attitude between the US and China when it comes to new technology. In the US the established players are very concerned that new tech will affect their business model, so they try to hold it back as much as possible. In China it gets embraced and there is a rush to adopt it.
The best AI movies look as bad as mid-90s CGI (Score:5, Interesting)
There will definitely be a niche for this...but AI movies are kinda like fruit-flavored candy. Grape sales didn't plummet once nerds candy came out in grape flavors.
The AI movie experience is slowly improving, but is still terrible. You can make a very short 5s shot that's QUITE convincing...so long as there's a single subject...really closeup.
There's an interesting parallel in AI porn. A girl in a bikini? AI gets an A+. I am not confident I can spot the AI vs a real image. Most of the time, I can detect mistakes in the background, but they're quite great at the foreground. At first, they'd always make lighting mistakes, but I just looked at some reddit examples and they've gotten quite better.
OK, the woman gets naked? B- Real women don't have perfectly circular symmetrical nipples. It's mistakes like that really mess things up. The shadows and proportions are often just "off"...however, where it fails nearly universally is any sort of liquid. if she's in the shower? (or any other fluids on her)...definitely F.
Video? Well...if there's on subject...it's definitely getting better. I've seen videos where I can't tell if it was generated by AI or was a real video through some sort of AI correction filter....so long as it's a closeup of the subject's face and has minimal movement. If there's a second person? I've seen C- videos here and there, but mostly horrible Fs. There's a LOT of physics mistakes from basic movements to fluids. Objects change size from frame to frame, etc.
Why do I bring up porn? Well...not just because I'm a pervert...TBH, AI porn isn't for me. However, it's because I believe many great consumer technology leaps were driven by porn: photography, home video, the internet, the smart phone, etc. Most of us love sex, don't get enough of it, and are willing to pay to get our thrills.
But also, there's a LOT of porn on the internet that would make for very easy training data. LOTS. Also, the subject matter is limited in scope, making the data more likely to be applicable. Next to sports, I can't imagine much filmed more often than a woman taking her top off...so...it is logical to assume it's the easiest thing for AI to generate. Few things are shared on the internet more than images of breasts. Why can't AI render a topless woman convincingly?
Once AI masters recreating a basic porn, I think Hollywood has reason to fear. However, if AI only works if the subjects is EXTREMELY closeup, doesn't show their hands, there's no fluid, there's little movement...then the movies it can make are really limited. Also, AI movies are EXPENSIVE to make today. I can't imagine people paying top dollar to see AI slop...and today, they cannot make them cheap enough to just give away for free for very long.
So while I can see a few scenes here and there or backgrounds using AI...we're FAR from replacing actors in convincing movies that don't look like shit. Also, AI is just not that popular. People hate AI slop. I don't see that changing until it actually does something cool...custom content?...maybe...but making slop with AI and charging us movie theater prices?....I don't see that working very well.
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> The AI movie experience is slowly improving, but is still terrible. You can make a very short 5s shot that's QUITE convincing...so long as there's a single subject...really closeup.
That's simply not true. I watched a ten-minute AI-generated Star Trek video on Youtube last week which was better than any offficial Star Trek show of the last few years.
And the guy made it at home on an Nvidia GPU in his PC using a Chinese video model.
Re:The best AI movies look as bad as mid-90s CGI (Score:4, Insightful)
To be honest: A lot of quality is in idea and writing and wit. Some amateur videos with obviously no budget can be more enjoyable than some crap produces with great special effects and well paid actors but without any novel idea or creativity.
And while AI won't magically make everyone a great movie producer, we will see a lot of great ideas realized that before would never have been realized. In particular that means a lot of hobby and enthusiast productions, which is of course nothing Hollywood is interested in. If everyone can do movies, they have to compete with everyone.
Re: The best AI movies look as bad as mid-90s CGI (Score:1)
Link
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Like punches are a foot away from making contact and things are just really really off.
I wonder how much of that is based on human actor motion capture used for the animations?
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Have you ever seen a long movie that's actually convincing that is generated by AI? I've seen sloppy ones. Even the "good" ones, like Higgsfield ones are impressive for AI, but not convincing. The shots are claustrophobically close...mostly to keep from rendering hands or the bodies. The physics are just WRONG...which is something you'd think AI would be able to do OK. Like punches are a foot away from making contact and things are just really really off.
Punches a foot away?
You mean to tell me all those humans in martial arts movies were actually hitting each other?
And here I thought I just needed to practice 9,999 more hours to get that whole "whop-whop-whop-ka-ching" sound with my fists. You know, because shit was SO real before..
Martial Arts movies tend to look pretty good (Score:2)
Punches a foot away?
You mean to tell me all those humans in martial arts movies were actually hitting each other?
And here I thought I just needed to practice 9,999 more hours to get that whole "whop-whop-whop-ka-ching" sound with my fists. You know, because shit was SO real before..
...the ones I grew up on were decent to a non-critical eye. I'm actually a Karate brown belt, but gave up on martial arts decades ago. Usually they're framed in a way that you cannot tell there's a gap and if you can see it, it's about 2 inches, tops. If it was 2x the typical gap?...that makes sense, but when it's 6x?...no, that's a lot worse. Sorry, the shittiest Russian-shill-era bloated obese Steven Segal movies don't even have a foot wide gap. To your point, Hollywood and Asian martial arts movies are far from perfect, but this is a lot worse.
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..Sorry, the shittiest Russian-shill-era bloated obese Steven Segal movies don't even have a foot wide gap.
I'd have to disagree based on the natural laws of mass. His newfound circumference alone mandates a gap wider than Skywalkers womprat targets.
I doubt Bruce Lee could kick his face at this point. With Kareems legs.
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Punches very obviously not connecting suggests it's been trained on Hollywood fight scenes. The other giveaway is rapid hard cuts and shaky camera so you can't see how badly the punches are not connecting. Everything feels weightless and fake.
There is a lot of AI slop, but I wouldn't discount it being able to do something decent with the right person at the helm.
Hollywood and Hong Kong hide the gap (Score:2)
Punches very obviously not connecting suggests it's been trained on Hollywood fight scenes. The other giveaway is rapid hard cuts and shaky camera so you can't see how badly the punches are not connecting. Everything feels weightless and fake.
There is a lot of AI slop, but I wouldn't discount it being able to do something decent with the right person at the helm.
I think this is untrue. Every movie I've seen does a pretty good job of hiding that gap...you can see it with a sharp critical eye, but if you're not paying attention it looks convincing. The Higgsfield stuff looks AWFUL...any idiot can see it's fake and impossible. Also, how could the author help it? AI is the author. It already has good training data. If your assertion was that it will look like hollywood, give or take 50%, I'd agree with you.
My assertion is the gap is 4-10x wider and more exagg
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However, it's because I believe many great consumer technology leaps were driven by porn: photography, home video, the internet, the smart phone, etc.
The smartphone??
I mean it was convincingly invented, if not widely used by IBM in 1993. It was made to look very impressive (albeit wired) in the late 90s by Olivetti. And of course PDAs approaching from the other end being more computer and less data. J2ME phones came out which were a pile of shit. Maybe you could get a shit game on them. I don't really know
You were married when the iPhone came out :) (Score:2)
However, it's because I believe many great consumer technology leaps were driven by porn: photography, home video, the internet, the smart phone, etc.
The smartphone??
I mean it was convincingly invented, if not widely used by IBM in 1993. It was made to look very impressive (albeit wired) in the late 90s by Olivetti. And of course PDAs approaching from the other end being more computer and less data. J2ME phones came out which were a pile of shit. Maybe you could get a shit game on them. I don't really know if Blackberries count: they were messaging first but did they have any generality beyond that? There was of course the legendary N900, and some impressive (for the time) yet deeply wonky Symbian devices.Then in 2007, Apple came out with a rather good dumbphone which was turned into a smartphone by Cydia, which Apple then got in on the game a year later (which is a bit weird if you think about it).
None of those were porn. It was all about connectivity and messaging and nerdy shit especially businessnerd shit (except the N900 which was real nerd shit). Then fashion, then just plain old usefulness.
I mean that's not to say people don't watch porn on a phone on a plane (shit head in 23A knows what I'm talking about you utter wanker, but not in that case literally thank god), but I don't there's a convincing case that porn had a significant role. Pocket computers were obviously useful, even more so with a data connection, and people had been trying to get them working for years before it finally took off.
I remember those, even dabbled with J2ME. I owned the Palm Trio PDA + phone before the iPhone. However, you're clearly straight and were married in 2007. And in fairness, I stated porn, but was including sex, so you're probably correct if we're being pedantic to the way I precisely stated it. Here's where I disagree with you. Remember, before I was born and probably you as well, they had VCRs. They were specialty devices for professionals. Once you had porn on them?...EVERYONE wanted one. The Palm
Cultural warfare (Score:2)
They want to kill Hollywood more than Hollywood is already destroying itself. Undercut them on cheap, shitty shlock, something something, soft power.
Check out Jia Zhangke's Dance on youtube (Score:5, Interesting)
Out of curiosity he spent a few days with an AI video generation tool, and released a short film in in time for Chinese New Year.
You can see it here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
He made a short meditation about creativity and identity, showing himself and an AI version of himself (though, of course, both instances were AI generated). It features images from a few of his movies, but you can enjoy without having seen those.
I was initially very much against AI films, but this short film shows what a consummate storyteller can do with the tool. Worth 5 minutes of your time.
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I watched it. It didn't hold me for 5 minutes. It might if I knew this guy's work better.
One thing I noticed is that it chops between scenes quickly, and they appear disjointed, I get the encounter and conversation of director and mimic, are supposed to glue them together, but I missed that tracking what was going on visually. Lots of jarring changes of scene.
I've seen this with AI movies on youtube, it's almost like now I can do anything easily with AI, I am going to try and show you everything I can imagi
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I recently watched Mayday, with Ryan Reynolds playing a fighter pilot who gets shot down in an SR-71 over the Soviet Union. Initially I thought that much of the USSR background HAD to be generated by AI with the actors green-screened in with good lighting and compositing, but the scenes were filmed in Budapest and at a huge Hungarian studio lot where Blade Runner 2049 and some other large-scale films with huge background scenery were filmed. Set-building gets combined with CGI, as in LOTR films and in Ridle
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Yup Mandalorian did this well.
I can even forgive Rogue one's Grandma Tarkin and Spooky Leia, because the rest of the movie was epic for me. Guns of Navarrone meets Star wars.
Peace man. l8rs.
Bug with moderator drop down. (Score:2)
The US and China were told differently... (Score:2)
Here in the US, we have been raised since days of the past of the machines turning on us. It could be Gort, AM, Skynet, GlaDOS, or many others. It is part of our national identity to fear terminators. Even our fiction, be it Star Wars, Star Trek, or Warhammer 40k [1] all fear robots and AI. In the real world, AI is (mis)used by businesses to take jobs, disrupt communications links via bots, elevating trolling to new levels, and obliterating the concept of an artist or musician. I was told by one busine
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Media bullshitted America for views. (Score:2)
Media bullshitted America for views since long before electricity.
Fear sells to the simpleton masses terrified of what they don't understand. US literacy is poor and comprehension terrible.
This will not improve because intelligence is not a choice.
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I would argue this stems for an innate distrust of overriding authority in the US versus absolutely required trust in authority in China. Doesn't matter if it's a president, a boss, or an AI avatar: American's are always hesitant to automatically trust the intentions of them. I believe this is a good instinct. You need to question these things, and not simply allow those in charge to dictate. Dictating ideas ( dictator has to come from somewhere, right?) works amazingly well and is incredibly efficient. Un
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That's the difference between neo-liberal capitalism and a socialist market economy. China has its faults in that the CCP is pretty bad at human rights and many other things, but the scale of industrial progress pushed forward by the state is pretty incredible. I don't think they're bringing all the people along for the ride, just the ones they like and the ones that comply/agree with the party. So the glory of the party has to be your motivation in China, not so much making money. I'm not sure exactly how
It's ok to grieve (Score:1)
root (Score:2)
The US? They want to ditch those stupid employees ASAP to make more profit with less hassle. CEO? That is old school. They want to be GOD!. As spiderman has not yet shown up, the future is bleak.
Re: root (Score:2)
China wants people now because it's part of their strength.
As manpower becomes less relevant, which is ongoing, they will change their minds and be looking for ways to get rid of them.
Re: root (Score:2)
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Mmmm travel more?
Hmm, delude yourself about governments less.
Re: root (Score:2)
Re: root (Score:2)
All you have to do is pay attention to what they do and how it doesn't match what they say.
Attention is in short supply today, but a little can go a long way.
Nobody who gives a fuck about humans institutes a social credit system. And yes, I include our allegedly not social credit system in that - our society simply only cares about money.
Re: root (Score:2)
Re: root (Score:2)
I didn't say we were perfect but you like to read things into what people wrote that isn't there. It must make it hard to communicate when you imagine that you're psychic.
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Certainly AI is a powerful tool for the CCP to continue to control what people think and how they think. This is no doubt why the CCP is encouraging an increase in AI development under their control. It's a seductively powerful tool. For the good of the people of course. Honestly makes me wonder if some of Trump's inner circle are thinking the same thing, although their actions in the Trump Iran war suggest they might not.
Timothy Zahn wrote some very thought-provoking and disturbing words about this yea
The industry does not exist to support its workers (Score:2)
The entertainment industry exists for profit, not welfare.
The gaming industry is already larger than Hollywood and
animation (by any name) will only improve.
Scripts are "code". Interposing fewer humans between script and finished result lowers costs and democratizes production by reducing physical (including equipment and set) footprint.
As movies obsoleted theater so computers are obsoleting old ways to make video. That's a natural evolution, similar to how CNC machining obsoleted factory floors of manual st
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I see, you're a Friedmanite. The purpose of all businesses is ROI, period.
Not to provide goods and services that people want or need, not to pay anyone to do that job (and you, personally, just *adore* chatbots answering your customer support calls), just ROI.
Re: The industry does not exist to support its wor (Score:2)
It's true for the scum with all the money since we let them write the rules. And around half of us seem to think it should be that way.
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The entertainment industry exists for profit, not welfare. The gaming industry is already larger than Hollywood..
Hollywood doesn’t suffer from an AI cost problem in the same way, with actor costs increasing as they sit in a retirement home.
Where the artist formerly known as “PS5” should have been instead of doubling its price pretending to be young and overvalued again.
Small wonder (Score:2)
After all, they all look the same. (gdarvf)
flesh out (Score:2)
so is "flesh out" going to become the new industry term for swapping in different human faces to "internationalize" movies ? sounds gory.
Can modern China actually create any art? (Score:1)
Most media is slop these days (Score:2)
Traditional media is finding it tough to rekindle that spark to capture interest in their efforts these days.
( How many no longer bother to go to the movie theater these days ? )
I mean, do I really want to go see the Nth remake of Batman ? . . . . . no not really )
It has become so expensive to produce / finance a movie, video game or streaming media series that they're
refusing to push the envelope and try anything new and, instead, resorting the the same old storylines, tropes,
and algorithms that made them
Critical distinction here (Score:2)
Mainland Chinese film industry is not the same as Hong Kong's films, or Taiwan's.
Hong Kong films should not be mistaken for mainland Chinese films - Shaw Brothers, Golden Harvest, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat are all Hong Kong. They are not controlled or funded by mainland China, and operate as non-government funded businesses.
Same goes for Taiwanese film makers like Ang Lee and others, who are more connected with Hollywood than Hong Kong, and not at all with China obviously.
The mainland Chi
Deepfaked (Score:2)
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Even more to your point, some directors literally write the script with an actor already in mind.
Taylor Sheridan wrote The Fuckin’ Billy Bob Thornton Show.
Marketing later suggested that “Landman” would do just fine.
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Books had middlemen, in the sense that publishers printed and acted as gatekeepers for what reached the public. With both the good ( I don't have to read through piles of nonsense to find a decent story!) and bad ( Pushing an agenda, only care about heavy sales) that implies.