Binge Watching On Steroids: The Future Of AI Streaming

Welcome to this week’s Deep-fried Dive with Fry Guy! In these long-form articles, Fry Guy conducts in-depth analyses of cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) developments and developers. Today, Fry Guy dives into the AI-driven future of show streaming. We hope you enjoy!

*Notice: We do not receive any monetary compensation from the people and projects we feature in the Sunday Deep-Fried Dives with Fry Guy. We explore these projects and developers solely to reveal interesting and cutting-edge AI developments and uses.*

The worst part about binge watching a show is when it ends, especially if it ends poorly.

Right now, when you want to watch a TV show like Survivor or The Amazing Race, you have to wait—sometimes up to a year or more—for the new seasons to debut. And after waiting that long, you might end up hating the new episodes anyways. Currently, there’s nothing you can do about that except turn off the TV and find a hobby. But that’s all about to change.

AI is transforming the way we watch our favorite movies and shows. In fact, it is changing the movies and shows themselves. In the near future, instead of anticipating the new season of Yellowstone or True Detective, AI will allow you to create your own shows—shows that are customized to your liking. You want to create an inspirational show about a high school football team? Just enter a prompt, and let AI do the magic. You want to create more episodes of a cancelled sitcom like Seinfeld? No problem. Just tell AI to do that for you. You hate the way Game of Thrones ended? Well, just tell AI to remake the final episode for you, exactly to your liking. This isn’t some far-reaching hope. This revolution is taking place right now, before our very eyes.

THE NEW NETFLIX

A startup AI media company called The Simulation (formerly “Fable”) recently went viral on social media for its AI tool. The tool, Showrunner, is powered by the company’s proprietary SHOW-1 model and serves as a text-to-show creation model. With a prompt of 10 to 15 words, users of the tool can generate scenes and episodes of shows ranging from 2 to 20 minutes long, complete with AI-generated dialogue, voice, video, and editing capabilities.

Showrunner initially went viral for creating brand new South Park episodes from AI prompts alone. The episodes received more than 8 million views and garnered the attention of major media producers like Fox, Netflix, Paramount, and Sony.

The Showrunner tool, though not yet publicly available, is designed to work effortlessly. Users only have to enter a simple prompt like, “Make me an episode of South Park. The episode should poke fun at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Be sure to include the characters Chef, Cartman, and Kenny predominantly throughout the episode.” Once the user hits enter, Showrunner will spit out a brand new episode according to the user’s prompt. Edward Saatchi, The Simulation CEO, imagines a future where viewers, after finishing a series, can simply generate new episodes with the click of a button, either by specifying a plot or letting AI take the reins.

Access to the Showrunner creation tool has been kept private, for now, as the company looks to sort out copyright concerns. For instance, the company created the AI South Park shows without the consent of the South Park creators. This effort was more of an experiment to show what can be done with AI show generation. But since these episodes went viral, the AI media company has released original shows, ones that have been publicly released and are available right now. The shows include Exit Valley, a cartoon about the bizarre startup life in Silicon Valley and What We Leave Behind, a family drama that takes place in San Francisco. These shows give us a glimpse of what the future AI media world will look like—a future where viewers are less passive consumers and more active creators. We will no longer wait for the next new hot drama series to drop on Netflix. Instead, we will create a personalized show with the help of AI.

A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE

In the near future, watching our favorite shows will look a lot different than it does now. To create new shows, users will use an app like Netflix or something similar. We will simply click on a “Create” button within the app and an input box will appear. From there, we will enter some basic sentences, describing the show we imagine in our heads. For example, a 30-year-old marine biologist sitting on their couch might want to watch a crime drama about dolphin poachers in Tahiti. They’ll want the show to be filled with lots of action. They’ll also want to incorporate some of their real-life work experiences into the show. In that case, the biologist would simply type the prompt, “Create me a crime drama about dolphin poachers. The show is located in Tahiti. Scan all of my work emails and incorporate my everyday work life into the TV series. Make it 100 episodes long. And fill it with tons of action and drama.” And with a simple prompt like that, an entire new TV series will be created.

These AI shows will expand beyond mere creation from prompts. On top of creation, we will be able to do some really cool things with the shows. For one, we will be able to edit them on the fly. So if you don’t like the ending of one episode because its boring, you could ask the AI to make the ending more engaging. You’ll also be able to upload all of your social media content and/or emails to the AI show creation model. Doing so will train the AI to know your personality better than some stranger. As a result, it will produce shows that you’ll most likely love because they are tailored to your personality, sense of humor, and more. You’ll also be able to interact with the episodes while you’re watching them. So if that latest dolphin poaching drama series gets a little boring, you could tell the AI to create a tsunami in the middle of the episode to spice things up a bit. Talk about plot twists!

This reality gets even more crazy when we consider the emerging potential of augmented reality (AR). With AR, you’ll be able to interact with your newly created characters in your living room, as if they were right there with you. The stories will no longer unfold on your 60” LED TV, but instead the characters will be projected in the room with you, creating an immersive experience like never before.

DRAMA BEHIND THE CURTAIN

As cool as all of this AI-powered show creation sounds, there are a few significant concerns. For one, AI shows could mark the end for Hollywood as we know it. Amidst AI’s use in movie and show creation over the past two years, actors and screenwriters have made outspoken remarks and even went on strike to protect their jobs and rights. As a result, we should expect AI shows to face an uphill battle for years to come. Companies like The Simulation will surely battle lawsuits and copyright concerns as they develop and promote their tools. At the end of the day, however, it is likely AI will prevail. As a result, we will see massive job loss for screenwriters and actors, who are no longer needed. It is likely actors whose image and likeness is used will be compensated accordingly, but others in Hollywood will see their industry reshaped in an unrecognizable way, leaving many of them holding picket signs outside the buildings of big tech companies.

A further problem caused by AI shows will be spurred by the consumption of our attention. As a result of personalized shows, our addiction to screens is going to get exponentially worse. That’s hard to believe considering screen time is already at record levels. A recent study revealed that the average person spends 11 hours per day interacting with screens.

When AI allows us to create endless shows catered to our liking, we’ll essentially be drowning ourselves in never-ending entertainment. This could become extremely addictive and dangerous. The University of New York at Potsdam found that online gaming releases the dopamine (pleasure chemical) equivalent of snorting cocaine. So one can imagine, if TV shows are specifically catered to our likes and wishes, then our brain is going to get flooded with dopamine. And slowly but surely, we will become addicted to personalized AI media. It will be like binge watching on steroids!