Will People Use Showrunner? Amazon Will Soon Find Out!
Image Source: CultureSlate
Amazon seems interested in helping further the advancements of AI, as seen with one of the latest investments of its Alexa Fund. The venture-capital investment arm has given an undisclosed amount of money to San Francisco-based start-up Fable, which is launching what it describes as the “Netflix of AI.”
Showrunner is a service that uses AI to create scenes or entire episodes of TV series. Whether entirely original or using an already existing world that has been created. Having spent several months in closed alpha testing with 10,000 users, the animation-focused service will launch as free to use. However, creators will soon need to pay $10-$20 per month to use it. The launch will see two worlds ready to use, allowing creators to mess around with what is possible.
Some other features of Showrunner include letting users insert themselves into a TV series’ world, along with their friends, which proved popular among the alpha testers. The systems behind Showrunner can keep characters consistent, it has been said, by analysing the story, evaluating whether a character would act in a specific way. The systems also have blocks on anything offensive, illegal, and copyright protected.
RELATED:
Edward Saatchi, co-founder of Fable, has grand ideas for expanding Showrunner, as he reveals, “The ‘Toy Story of AI’ isn’t just going to be a cheap Toy Story. Our idea is that ‘Toy Story of AI’ would be playable, with millions of new scenes, all owned by Disney.” Such talks of partnerships are ongoing, as Saatchi wants the world of entertainment to change. “Hollywood streaming services are about to become two-way entertainment: audiences watching a season of a show [and] loving it will now be able to make new episodes with a few words and become characters with a photo.”
Saatchi does recognise the limits of AI at present, along with the fact that maybe his ideas aren’t what people want. “Today, AI can’t sustain a story beyond one episode. What AI is strongest at is deeply episodic shows with characters largely resetting every episode – sitcoms, police procedurals, space exploration.” On his doubts about Showrunner’s success, he simply said, “Maybe nobody wants this and it won’t work.”
Showrunner is ready for people to use, creating their own entertainment with AI. The weeks ahead will tell how many people want such a future.
READ NEXT:
Source: Variety
Latest News
Featured
