Tag Archives: production

Star Wars’ Showcase of AI Special Effects Was a Complete Disaster

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Special effects house Industrial Light and Magic shared a new AI demo of Star Wars creatures that look absolutely awful.

If Disney leadership has its way, we'll all be drooling over endless Star Wars reboots, sequels, and spinoffs until the Sun explodes. And what better way to keep the slop machine humming than using good old generative AI?

Unfortunately, as highlighted by 404 Media, we just got a preview of what that might look like. Industrial Light and Magic, the legendary visual effects studio behind nearly every "Star Wars" movie, released a new demo showcasing how AI could supercharge depictions of the sci-fi universe.

And unsurprisingly, it looks absolutely, flabbergastingly awful.

The demo, called "Star Wars: Field Guide," was revealed in a recent TED talk given by ILM's chief creative officer Rob Bredow, who stressed that it was just a test — "not a final product" — created by one artist in two weeks. 

It's supposed to give you a feel of what it'd be like to send a probe droid to a new Star Wars planet, Bredow said. But what unfolds doesn't feel like "Star Wars" at all. More so, it's just a collection of generic-looking nature documentary-style shots, featuring the dumbest creature designs you've ever seen. And all of them are immediately recognizable as some form of real-life Earth animal, which echoes the criticisms of generative AI as being merely a tool that regurgitates existing art.

You can watch it here yourself, but here's a quick rundown of the abominations on display — which all have that fake-looking AI sheen to them. A blue tiger with a lion's mane. A manatee with what are obviously just squid tentacles pasted onto its snout. An ape with stripes. A polar bear with stripes. A peacock that's actually a snail. A blue elk that randomly has brown ears. A monkey-spider. A zebra rhino. Need we say more? 

"None of those creatures look like they belong in Star Wars," wrote one commenter on the TED talk video. "They are all clearly two Earth animals fused together in the most basic way."

Make no mistake: ILM is a pioneer in the special effects industry. Founded by George Lucas during the production of the original "Star Wars" movie, the outfit has innovated so many of the feats of visual trickery that filmmakers depend on today while spearheading the use of CGI. Its bona fides range from "Terminator 2," and "Jurassic Park," to "Starship Troopers."

Which is why it's all the more disheartening to see it kowtowing to a technology that bastardizes an art form it perfected. What ILM shows us is a far cry from the iconic creature designs that "Star Wars" is known for, from Tauntauns to Ewoks.

Sure, there's some room for debate about how much of a role AI should play in filmmaking — with labor being the biggest question — and Bredow broaches the subject by pointing out that ILM has always taken cutting-edge technologies and used them along with proven techniques. He assures the audience that real artists aren't going anywhere, and that "innovation thrives when the old and new technologies are blended together."

That's all well and good. But to jump from that sort of careful stance to showing off completely AI-generated creations sends a deeply conflicting message.

More on AI in movies: Disney Says Its "Fantastic Four" Posters Aren't AI, They Actually Just Look Like Absolute Garbage

The post Star Wars' Showcase of AI Special Effects Was a Complete Disaster appeared first on Futurism.

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Star Wars' Showcase of AI Special Effects Was a Complete Disaster

Zuckerberg Encourages Theatergoers to Use Their Phones While Movie Is Playing

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now actively rallying theatergoers to use their accursed smartphones when they're at the movies.

Uncontent with merely turning Facebook and Instagram into right-wing hellscapes of AI slop, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now actively rallying theatergoers to pull out their glowingly annoying smartphones when they're at the movies.

As Variety reports, Meta is teaming up with the horror film studio Blumhouse to bring the "second screen" experience to its single-night re-release of "M3GAN" on April 30.

Dubbed "Halfway to Halloween," the production company's limited engagement will also include "Annabelle" and "Ma," two of its other big hits — but it's clear that "M3GAN," with its hotly anticipated upcoming sequel, is the star of the show.

Using chatbot technology that Meta refers to as "Movie Mate" — a new spin, perhaps, on Zuckerberg's cringey push to get his subordinates to refer to each other as "Meta Mates" back when he was all-in on virtual reality — fans will be able to talk to an AI version of the iconic robot.

There is, however, a catch.

"Movie Mate is only available to moviegoers who are in a theater," the studio explained in a statement provided to Variety, "and works by DM'ing the Instagram account @M3GAN account to start the experience."

When we asked Meta how this location-specific gambit works, a company spokesperson told Futurism that a "code will be displayed on the movie screen prior to the trailers" to verify that users are in the theater, and they would subsequently be provided with instructions on how to initiate the DM convo. Though that's better than using some sort of creepy geofencing, it also sounds like it requires a non-minimal amount of effort — which equals, of course, more light pollution inside dark theaters packed with patrons for the single-night screenings.

Beyond the "M3GAN" chatbot, the promotion will also include more traditional marketing incentives like "sneak peeks, exclusive recorded messages from directors and talent from the films, and surprise special appearances in select markets," Blumhouse said in its statement.

Amid this desperate attempt to make Meta relevant post-Metaverse, many folks are not thrilled at the thought of studios intentionally and actively encouraging people to ruin the movie theater experience.

"I feel like M3GAN would actually kill moviegoers who used [Movie Mate]," one Bluesky user quipped.

"It's feeling like we've lost the fight on this one," Bloody Disgusting editor-in-chief John Squires tweeted, "and the next generation of the theater-going experience will be tailored to the youth and the way they consume movies, which is very different than the way most of us do."

"Hollywood will likely lean in," he continued. "And maybe they have to."

In response to the news, the Alamo Drafthouse theater chain confirmed to Variety that it won't be participating in the monstrous "Movie Mate" campaign — though, to be fair, that decision could be an attempt to gain back goodwill from pro-labor cinephiles who boycotted during a recently-ended strike protesting layoffs.

Though Meta is far from the first company to attempt this kind of ghoulish "second screen marketing," bringing it to theaters — and to a single-night engagement in particular — is indeed horrific.

More on Meta: Instagram Showing Users Grotesque Videos of Human-Animal Hybrids

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