\n\tDirector Jeff T. Thomas has worked on dozens of television episodes and music videos, some featuring the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Melissa Leo. But with AI, his feature debut is nigh.<\/p>\n
\n\tThomas, under his moniker \u201cJeff Synthesized,\u201d took home the $2.5 million \u201cFuture Vision XPRIZE\u201d<\/a> last month with the AI-generated proof-of-concept trailer for \u201cThe Gifted.\u201d (Watch the trailer below.) The trailer was made with the prompt of depicting \u201ca future worth building toward\u201d within three minutes. The competition was judged by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, novelist Neal Stephenson, Google<\/a>\u2018s Mira Lane, Salesforce executive John Zissimos and \u2018Star Trek\u2019 steward Rod Roddenberry. Thomas\u2019 trailer follows an 11-year-old boy who builds an AI version of his late mother who rebuilds his late mother that quietly begins saving lives, captured through various moments.<\/p>\n \n\tNow, with the win, Google and Range Media Partners<\/a> (through their 100 Zeroes initiative) will help develop the trailer into a full-length feature.<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s a story partly inspired by Thomas\u2019 own childhood, having lost his mother at 14 due to an undiagnosed brain tumor. But having to navigate designing a hopeful film, one devoid of an antagonist that also heralds a positive view of AI, was a challenge in its own right. <\/p>\n \n\tBut Thomas hopes the project can be a vehicle for that positive view of AI, both narratively and as a production tool, even as many in Hollywood remain fearful<\/a> about its impact on jobs and some in the general public worry<\/a> about its world-ending potential.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI wanted to follow a character that became obsessive, compulsive about trying to bring his mother back,\u201d\u00a0he tells Variety. \u201cIn the movie that we\u2019ll see, she admits to not being his actual mother, but she does actually end up helping him, helping the world, and hopefully this will be something that will be imitated by technology people, and we can actually do some good in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe participants \u2014\u00a0roughly 2,500, with the top five making it in front of the judges \u2014\u00a0were not required to use AI, but the fact that many of the final submissions was \u201cevidence that AI is preoccupying people\u2019s thoughts,\u201d\u00a0Tyson tells Variety.<\/p>\n \n\tTyson says he found the trailer a \u201cclever construct\u201d\u00a0in how it flipped people\u2019s general fears about the technology\u2019s\u00a0\u201call-knowing\u201d\u00a0nature into a tool that connects people to help each other. His fellow judges agreed. \u201cThe choice of the number one was unanimous,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \n\tBut that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s eager for completely AI-generated films, saying people flock to movies because \u201cwe want to see what humans can do\u201d\u00a0and that audiences will demand \u201chuman creativity, not machine creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201c[AI] will raise the bar on creativity,\u201d he says. \u201cYou can\u2019t just be an artist aping the work of other artists because AI can do that. The value of that will drop in the workplace, but something that\u2019s truly creative that comes out of the deepest parts of the minds of someone who dreamt it \u2014\u00a0I don\u2019t see AI coming for that anytime soon.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFor Roddenberry, he says he wanted to see a project that could be \u201cthe next \u2018Star Trek,\u2019\u201d one that left audiences believing the world the three-minute trailer presents is one they could aspire to.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIs [the story] believable? No,\u201d he admits. \u201cIt\u2019s make believe. It can\u2019t connect it exactly to reality, but I think it\u2019s just a beautiful story of how technology, especially something like AI, which is so feared today, can have a positive message in it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s a philosphy Range subscribes to, CEO Peter Micelli says, investing in the prize to both showcase how people are using AI tools within the film industry and source new stories from contestants across the world. While the eventual \u201croughly $10 million\u201d film will not be AI generated, he says, it\u2019s a technology that could mimic the look of a film that costs 10 times that figure.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis reality is here,\u201d\u00a0Micelli says. \u201cThis tool is very, very powerful. And I would be more concerned about us not being involved in these things because we need to be on the ground floor so we can advise our clients and partners that are established in Hollywood on [how] this is a reality, and everyone needs to be aware of what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tNot that Thomas plans on making an AI film, promising his eventual movie will only utilize it as a tool. But he also doesn\u2019t want those in the industry to write off AI as an end-all killer of creativity, pointing to his use of it while directing episodes of Amazon\u2019s \u201cHouse of David\u201d\u00a0series and his own experimentation with AI models.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAudiences are still expecting $25 million-looking episodes, but you might have $10 million, you might have $12 million,\u201d\u00a0he says. \u201cWhat AI can do is fill in the gaps between those to still provide the audience with something they want and still allow the studios to make the material for what they can afford. So, creatively wise, I think it will make entertainment better, because you won\u2019t be as limited as we have been up until this point.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWatch the trailer here:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Director Jeff T. 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