Great piece! AI cannot replace taste, it only amplifies. We'll see plenty of garbage made by AI, but true artists will make better work with this.
Don't agree with the full commentary on Ghibli slop -- just because something is hard to make does not mean it has artistic value, Ghibli's work are masterpieces not because they are hard to make but because of the stories and aesthetics. The scarcity of true Ghibli work is a side effect of its painstaking creative process. Using technology to cut down the time to produce a story is not slop.
In Ghibli's masterpieces, the effort that goes into the animation is matched by that of story craft and aesthetics. Cutting down time with technology does not help with this type of creative process. The result will necessarily be inferior.
I worked on this - fwiw from this side the range of images isn’t very one note. Think influencers and very online people enjoyed turning photos of themselves into these styles, but average user behavior is quite different. You can browse more general usage on Sora - there are a few feeds https://sora.com/explore/images
Bailey!! An absolute pleasure to see you in my comments. Thanks for chiming in—the Ghibli trend definitely dominated my feed (even Sam changed his avatar), but you're right that design/tech Twitter probably isn't representative of average users...
I tried checking out the Sora feeds but account creation seems paused due to high traffic. Will try again later. And thanks for plugging Joanne's piece—will dig in!
Loved this take and curation of POVs—definitely agree that the role of the art director will have a renaissance. Taste at work is a skill that only keeps mattering more and more
A minor but actually important note -- it took 15 months for that scene in part, because they could take 15 months, given that the fruit of the consistent production quality and international acclaim is, Miyazaki can push his artists to do this while maintaining a highly successful studio business. In a sense, it is an indulgence, and in a sense, the net effect of his indulgence works.
That's quite a bit different from saying that artists couldn't be faster, or even, and most importantly,
that somehow there is more value or money to be made, going faster in a niche.
I honestly think that to understand AI and its impact on art and human output, you first need to take a step back and understand ecology, open systems, and definitely at least MPP.
Well maybe this is a side issue but am I the only one that noticed that in Sherwin Wu’s direction to ask for ChatGPT’s version of a bookshelf and reading bench doesn’t include a single book in an image of a BOOKshelf and READING bench? Is it actively trolling us?
Interesting how Ben went from Shakespeare and Elizabethan theater to the impact on consumer economics of entertainment. Thank you for posting and sharing.
Carly, fastest gun in the west
yeah lmk if you catch any typos lol
Great piece! AI cannot replace taste, it only amplifies. We'll see plenty of garbage made by AI, but true artists will make better work with this.
Don't agree with the full commentary on Ghibli slop -- just because something is hard to make does not mean it has artistic value, Ghibli's work are masterpieces not because they are hard to make but because of the stories and aesthetics. The scarcity of true Ghibli work is a side effect of its painstaking creative process. Using technology to cut down the time to produce a story is not slop.
In Ghibli's masterpieces, the effort that goes into the animation is matched by that of story craft and aesthetics. Cutting down time with technology does not help with this type of creative process. The result will necessarily be inferior.
I worked on this - fwiw from this side the range of images isn’t very one note. Think influencers and very online people enjoyed turning photos of themselves into these styles, but average user behavior is quite different. You can browse more general usage on Sora - there are a few feeds https://sora.com/explore/images
Bailey!! An absolute pleasure to see you in my comments. Thanks for chiming in—the Ghibli trend definitely dominated my feed (even Sam changed his avatar), but you're right that design/tech Twitter probably isn't representative of average users...
I tried checking out the Sora feeds but account creation seems paused due to high traffic. Will try again later. And thanks for plugging Joanne's piece—will dig in!
Also maybe worth a read - the researcher who led the policy explorations and discussion wrote up an explanation of the thinking on substack ! https://open.substack.com/pub/reservoirsamples/p/thoughts-on-setting-policy-for-new?r=3uoy9&utm_medium=ios
Cool read! Thanks! ✨
Oddly - Ben Affleck articulated the situation we find ourselves in rather well https://youtu.be/ypURoMU3P3U
Yesss — I thought so too! https://open.substack.com/pub/carly/p/the-extremely-online-report-november
You captured a wild moment in time. If this was a printed newspaper, it would be one of those very important clippings that ages like fine wine
Loved this take and curation of POVs—definitely agree that the role of the art director will have a renaissance. Taste at work is a skill that only keeps mattering more and more
Perspective helps here.
A minor but actually important note -- it took 15 months for that scene in part, because they could take 15 months, given that the fruit of the consistent production quality and international acclaim is, Miyazaki can push his artists to do this while maintaining a highly successful studio business. In a sense, it is an indulgence, and in a sense, the net effect of his indulgence works.
That's quite a bit different from saying that artists couldn't be faster, or even, and most importantly,
that somehow there is more value or money to be made, going faster in a niche.
I honestly think that to understand AI and its impact on art and human output, you first need to take a step back and understand ecology, open systems, and definitely at least MPP.
Well maybe this is a side issue but am I the only one that noticed that in Sherwin Wu’s direction to ask for ChatGPT’s version of a bookshelf and reading bench doesn’t include a single book in an image of a BOOKshelf and READING bench? Is it actively trolling us?
Interesting how Ben went from Shakespeare and Elizabethan theater to the impact on consumer economics of entertainment. Thank you for posting and sharing.
This is great. Thank you for saying everything I was feeling today.