I Went to the Premiere of the First Commercially Streaming AI-Generated Movies
December 12, 2024 at 03:29AMTCL, a Chinese electronics company, is the largest TV manufacturer on Earth. It’s also in the business of creating content and now owns Hollywood’s historic Chinese Theatre. (How depressing!) For 404 Media, Jason Koebler recounts his visit to the iconic venue, where he previewed the first short AI-generated films for commercial streaming. Everything—from the movies to TCL’s strategy behind this AI-powered content—was as soul-sucking as you’d expect.
Before airing the short, AI-generated films, Haohong Wang, the general manager of TCL Research America, gave a presentation in which he explained that TCL’s AI movie and TV strategy would be informed and funded by targeted advertising, and that its content will “create a flywheel effect funded by two forces, advertising and AI.” He then pulled up a slide that suggested AI-generated “free premium originals” would be a “new era” of filmmaking alongside the Silent Film era, the Golden Age of Hollywood, etc.
Catherine Zhang, TCL’s vice president of content services and partnerships, then explained to the audience that TCL’s streaming strategy is to “offer a lean-back binge-watching experience” in which content passively washes over the people watching it. “Data told us that our users don’t want to work that hard,” she said. “Half of them don’t even change the channel.”
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2024/12/11/i-went-to-the-premiere-of-the-first-commercially-streaming-ai-generated-movies/
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