David Reviews
 "You're not an artist, Peggy. You solve problems." Don Draper.
YOU FINALLY REALLY DID IT! YOU MANIACS!
26 June 2024

Toys'R'Us have leaned fully into so-called AI filmmaking by constructing a commercial by feeding prompts into Sora... and the outcome is as awful as you'd expect.

It has, as might be expected, polarised opinion, but, interestingly, no one is arguing that it's good. The difference of opinion centres on whether it's a positive development.

Many of the tech bro enthusiasts for so-called AI are urgently reminding those who are creeped out by its 'uncanny valley' virtual protagonist that not everything made by human creators is good. This is true, of course, but the suggestion that ads made by so-called AI won't have a monopoly on shit content isn't exactly positive advocacy.


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The suggestion that ads made by so-called AI won't have a monopoly on shit content isn't exactly positive advocacy.

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As Jordi Bares of rohtau rightly says, this is the starting pistol that triggers the race to the bottom. FOMO will lead other brands to explore this option without regard for the way the work is received (in any case, Toys'R'Us have disabled comments on the version of this ad sitting on YouTube and you can divine what you want from that decision).

DAVID has already drawn attention to the legal peril of using content created by so-called AI, and during AICP Week in New York earlier this month, this issue was highlighted by legal experts working in the realm. They recognise that content which has been made by unauthorised scraping of material could yet lead to a significant class action launched by those who own the rights to the footage used by Sora et al to generate stuff like this weird 'Polar Express'-style cringefest.

The apologists and advocates are correct in pointing out that this technology will improve, but it's instructive to remember something contained in the article by Nikhil Suresh posted in yesterday's newsletter:

A possible "outcome is that it turns out that the current approach does not scale in the way that we would hope, for myriad reasons. There isn't enough data on the planet, the architecture doesn't work the way we'd expect, the thing just stops getting smarter."

But it doesn't seem likely that brands like Toys'R'Us will be daunted by this prospect as they sink to new lows in their virtual bathysphere.
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