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A brand new AI-generated film trailer that splices collectively the wildly-hyped motion pictures Barbie and Oppenheimer right into a mashup — that includes a pink mushroom cloud — has gone viral. 

The trailer presents a spot-on sendup on the “Barbenheimer” hype that had moviegoers flocking to see each motion pictures back-to-back, regardless that the 2 movies couldn’t be extra completely different — Oppenheimer is a sober biopic in regards to the life and legacy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, whereas Barbie is a fizzy, feminist, live-action have a look at the well-known doll. 

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Powered by picture technology AI Midjourney and film generator Runway Gen2 and that includes AI-generated voices supposedly belonging to Margot Robbie and Matt Damon, the “Barbenheimer” crossover took simply 4 days to make, in keeping with the creator’s Reddit publish, the place he shared a hyperlink to his course on AI filmmaking. 

However as a reporter masking AI’s cheerful, bullish, even fluffy aspect in addition to its critical, sobering aspect, I can’t assist however take into consideration three issues the AI-generated ‘Barbenheimer’ film trailer says in regards to the state of generative AI proper now.

1. AI-generated leisure is shifting quick — excellent for immediately’s viral moments. 

So, it’s no shock that because the Barbenheimer hype rocketed upward, any on-line content-maker might bounce on board with their very own quick-and-dirty AI-generated take to share throughout social platforms. A conventional advert company couldn’t presumably transfer quick sufficient to tug off the identical sort of “Barbenheimer” sendup to fulfill the second, and the prices can be prohibitive sufficient that they probably wouldn’t even strive. 

In an period when social media content material is a part of the zeitgeist greater than ever, there’s little question that the velocity of improvement of AI-generated leisure is completely positioned for immediately’s viral moments. Again in March, for instance, a Reddit person shared an AI-generated video of Will Smith consuming spaghetti on the r/StableDiffusion subreddit. It rapidly unfold on social media in addition to the mainstream press, with one article saying the video “would hang-out you for the remainder of your life.” 

2. The ‘Barbenheimer’ trailer comes as creatives strike and regulators play AI catchup.

Hollywood has come practically to a halt in current weeks, with SAG-AFTRA actors and writers at the moment on strike and expressing specific issues in regards to the affect of gen AI on their trade and jobs. The “Barbenheimer” trailer is an ideal instance: Who wants the expensive providers of Margot Robbie and Matt Damon if you happen to can provide you with a serviceable AI copy? Why use the time-consuming work of artists or editors when you may have the speedy output of Midjourney and Runway Gen 2? 

On the similar time, AI-focused creatives who’re excited by the chances of gen AI are going full-steam forward — at the same time as regulators and policy-makers dash to catch up. The Senate shall be schooled in AI this fall with an eye fixed in the direction of a basis for creating laws in 2024. Will that be too little, too late? 

3. The present generative AI hype may be a candy-colored wrapper round a extra critical, unsettling actuality.

The AI-generated Barbenheimer trailer is, in my view, humorous and cute. However the concept you can wrap considered one of historical past’s most horrifying intervals — the event of the atomic bomb throughout World Warfare II, which led to the dying of lots of of hundreds at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 — in a candy-colored Barbie wrapper and a pink mushroom cloud is equal components gorgeous and surprising. 

That’s gen AI in a nutshell — gorgeous and surprising, thrilling and horrifying, dazzling and appalling, generally suddenly. However actually, all stakeholders concerned in AI improvement want to think about not simply the sugary floor of what gen AI can do, however the deep, actual points that lay beneath.