It's a question of whether AI is being used to write the story or tell the story. You could use AI to have Jeff Lebowski fly between women's legs down a bowling alley, but not to write that movie.
Please consider formatting it as a test. If you have two topics you want to write about, flip a coin to determine which one you write about and give the other one to an LLM. Publish both articles on the same day and poll readers (probably just paid subscribers) on which one they think is you. If you have a lot of topics one week, you could even do this multiple times and see which readers can determine AI authorship better than chance.
This would give you some sort of objective data point for comparison the next time you try it.
Before Christopher Nolan sent Matt Damon back in time I had the most popular Substack in the world and Jeff Maurer was nobody. Then Damon stepped in the time machine and all of a sudden I found that I'm nobody and he's a popular Substacker and the future host of the Maurer Hour! It's that whole butterfly effect thing, Nolan changed the whole course of history here.
Jeff, in complete sincerity, if you wanted to produce a Zucker Brothers-style script, I think between AI to offset costs and also us, your growing minions, you have a real shot! If you said “I am making a really funny film and I need to raise $200,000 to do it,” I’d throw some cash at you.
I'm reminded of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which involved no big name actors, no action sequences, no places where AI was needed, told a real human story, and as a result made Tom Hanks more money than all of his acting jobs put together.
You can even put in the credits "made by the (former) senior writer of Last Week Tonight", with a cameo by Jon Oliver! (not a typo, I'm refering of course to the editor who was involved with dancing with the stars and Americas got Talent)
I came here to say the same thing! And part of why it works is that it does go on and on. It’s funnier with eight dead siblings than it would have been with three, as in most jokes.
AI generated drama doesn't work but it can work in comedy. There was a really funny YouTube channel called White Liberal News that was all AI generated, but each video was 2 to 3 minutes long, and the Uncanny Valley stuff added to the humor. I think AI comedy has to be very narrowly tailored to a specific subject or theme, I'm not sure you could make a whole movie that is AI generated, unless it was something like Airplane! that is very heavy on the visual gags. I think AI comedy is best consumed in very small bites for it to stay funny.
He actually uses a fascinating hybrid approach, transforming his own voice acting rather than relying on AI for that and even doing some mocap, but yeah. AI and surrealist comedy go together, and you can get away with a lot using the tools
Back in the sitcom heyday the licensing fee covered costs and there were strict guardrails in place in what was to be written to be cost efficient. Most shows only had four principals, maybe one outside member brought in for an episode. Shows generally had to take place in the standing sets and consideration was even given as to how many costume changes took place. Writer’s rooms were small and a significant number of episodes were farmed out. That began to change when the syndication market came into existence in the 1980’s.
1. Making art that more or less defines "kitsch" for a generation of Americans
2. Earning simply unfathomable sums of money selling it
...got his start painting backgrounds for animator Ralph Bakshi. So the idea of an A.I. -- perhaps an A.I. trained on Kinkade's work! -- doing the same thing isn't that far-fetched.
A.I.'s skill at cranking out kitsch has really shone a light on how many paying art jobs were in the kitsch-making industry.
To answer the question in the title, Connor O'Malley had a St. Paddy's Day video called "Irish Zionism" that used AI for some scenes. Even though he caught shit for it, it amounted to like 10% of the overall video and was similar to your script: a bunch of outlandish cutscenes to further the (insane) plot.
It's a question of whether AI is being used to write the story or tell the story. You could use AI to have Jeff Lebowski fly between women's legs down a bowling alley, but not to write that movie.
Yes, which reminds me: It’ll be time for another “can AI write an IMBW column?” check-in soon.
Please consider formatting it as a test. If you have two topics you want to write about, flip a coin to determine which one you write about and give the other one to an LLM. Publish both articles on the same day and poll readers (probably just paid subscribers) on which one they think is you. If you have a lot of topics one week, you could even do this multiple times and see which readers can determine AI authorship better than chance.
This would give you some sort of objective data point for comparison the next time you try it.
Before Christopher Nolan sent Matt Damon back in time I had the most popular Substack in the world and Jeff Maurer was nobody. Then Damon stepped in the time machine and all of a sudden I found that I'm nobody and he's a popular Substacker and the future host of the Maurer Hour! It's that whole butterfly effect thing, Nolan changed the whole course of history here.
Jeff, in complete sincerity, if you wanted to produce a Zucker Brothers-style script, I think between AI to offset costs and also us, your growing minions, you have a real shot! If you said “I am making a really funny film and I need to raise $200,000 to do it,” I’d throw some cash at you.
I'm reminded of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which involved no big name actors, no action sequences, no places where AI was needed, told a real human story, and as a result made Tom Hanks more money than all of his acting jobs put together.
You could also play all the siblings
You can even put in the credits "made by the (former) senior writer of Last Week Tonight", with a cameo by Jon Oliver! (not a typo, I'm refering of course to the editor who was involved with dancing with the stars and Americas got Talent)
If it makes you feel any better I thought your joke was funny.
I came here to say the same thing! And part of why it works is that it does go on and on. It’s funnier with eight dead siblings than it would have been with three, as in most jokes.
Life in the early 1900's was so dangerous Ernie's family history was totally plausible as evident from your "100 years ago today" bits show.
Poor Ernie.....
AI generated drama doesn't work but it can work in comedy. There was a really funny YouTube channel called White Liberal News that was all AI generated, but each video was 2 to 3 minutes long, and the Uncanny Valley stuff added to the humor. I think AI comedy has to be very narrowly tailored to a specific subject or theme, I'm not sure you could make a whole movie that is AI generated, unless it was something like Airplane! that is very heavy on the visual gags. I think AI comedy is best consumed in very small bites for it to stay funny.
Neural Viz way ahead of you. https://youtu.be/rfTnW8pl3DE
He actually uses a fascinating hybrid approach, transforming his own voice acting rather than relying on AI for that and even doing some mocap, but yeah. AI and surrealist comedy go together, and you can get away with a lot using the tools
I read somewhere that Luis Buñuel’s cinematographer once asked the great director why he chose him. “Because you work fast and cheap” was the reply.
"The joke involves eight small speaking roles — eight actors who get SAG scale for speaking one line."
Why not just use the same bloke playing Ernie?
It could be like Alec Guinness in Kind Hearts and Cornets.
I am personally fine with you using DALL·E 3 for visual gags if it means you get to eat. Graphics people are expensive!
Would casting the same actor (and a series of increasingly stupid wigs) to play all 8 siblings make that joke filmable?
Back in the sitcom heyday the licensing fee covered costs and there were strict guardrails in place in what was to be written to be cost efficient. Most shows only had four principals, maybe one outside member brought in for an episode. Shows generally had to take place in the standing sets and consideration was even given as to how many costume changes took place. Writer’s rooms were small and a significant number of episodes were farmed out. That began to change when the syndication market came into existence in the 1980’s.
Thomas Kinkade, famous for
1. Making art that more or less defines "kitsch" for a generation of Americans
2. Earning simply unfathomable sums of money selling it
...got his start painting backgrounds for animator Ralph Bakshi. So the idea of an A.I. -- perhaps an A.I. trained on Kinkade's work! -- doing the same thing isn't that far-fetched.
A.I.'s skill at cranking out kitsch has really shone a light on how many paying art jobs were in the kitsch-making industry.
Honesty, I can’t even consider what you wrote because I’m afraid Justine Bateman will beat me up.
To answer the question in the title, Connor O'Malley had a St. Paddy's Day video called "Irish Zionism" that used AI for some scenes. Even though he caught shit for it, it amounted to like 10% of the overall video and was similar to your script: a bunch of outlandish cutscenes to further the (insane) plot.
AI is a tool. Blame not the tool, but how the tool is used.
I mean, there are some things where there’s more to it than this particularly around IT security, but this isn’t not one of those areas.