The age of six finger hands and a twisted face is gone. AI-generated videos are increasingly persuasive and attracting Hollywood, artists and advertisers, whilst shaking the foundations of the creative industry.
To measure the progress of the AI video, you simply have to watch Will, who eats spaghetti.
Since 2023, this unlikely sequence – fully manufactured – has become the industry's technical benchmark.
Two years ago, the actor looked blurry, his eyes were too far apart, his forehead thrusts out exaggerated, his movements jerky, and spaghetti didn't even reach his mouth.
The version published by users of Google's VEO 3 platform a few weeks ago showed no obvious flaws.
“When you come out every day, every day, something else comes out, something even more surprising,” said Elizabeth Strickler, a professor at Georgia State University.
Luma Labs' Dream Machine was launched in June 2024, with Openai's SORA in December, Runway AI's Gen-4 in March 2025, and VEO 3 in May surpassing several milestones in a few months.
Runway has signed an agreement with Lionsgate Studio and AMC Networks Television Group.
Lionsgate vice president Michael Burns spoke to New York magazine about the possibility of using artificial intelligence to generate animated, family-friendly versions of films such as the John Wick and the Hunger Games franchise, rather than creating an entirely new project.
“Some of them are used for storyboarding and preconditioning” – steps that come before filming – “other steps for visual effects and inserts,” says Jamie Umpherson, creative director at Runway.
Burns gave an example of a script in which Lionsgate has to decide whether to film the scene or not.
To make that decision, they can now create a 10-second clip “involving 10,000 soldiers in a snowstorm.”
Before such visualization, it had cost millions of dollars.
In October, the first AI feature film was released – “Where the Robots Grow” – is an animated film that doesn't resemble live-action footage.
For Alejandro Matamala Ortiz, co-founder of Runway, AI-generated feature films are not the ultimate goal, but a way to demonstrate to the production team that “this is possible.”
– “Resistance everywhere” –
Still, some people see the opportunity.
In March, Startup Staircase Studio made waves by announcing plans to use AI to produce seven to eight films a year for under $500,000 each.
“There's a market,” said Andrew White, co-founder of Small Production House Indie Studios.
People “don't want to talk about how it's made,” White pointed out. “It's in baseball. People want to enjoy films for the film.”
However, White himself refuses to adopt technology, considering using AI to compromise his creative process.
Jamie Umpherson argues that AI allows creators to get closer to their artistic vision than ever, unlike traditional systems that are constrained by cost.
The Georgia batsman observed that “resistance is everywhere” to the movement.
This is especially true among her students who are concerned about the large-scale energy and water consumption of AI and the use of original works to train models, not to mention the social impact.
But refusing to accept a shift is “like doing business without the internet,” she said. “I can try it for a while.”
In 2023, American Actors Guild's Sag AFTRA secured concessions on the use of images via AI.
Strickler is watching AI reduce Hollywood's role as a creative and taste arbitrator, allowing more artists and creators to reach important audiences instead.
The founder of Runway is an artist as trained as computer scientists, and has an edge over AI video rivals in film, television and advertising.
But they are already looking further ahead, considering their already expanded reality and their expansion into virtual reality. For example, I'm creating a metaverse that allows me to shoot movies.
“The most exciting applications aren't necessarily those we have in mind,” Umpherson says. “The ultimate goal is to see what artists do with technology.”
TU/ARP/AKS/MLM
