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Comment by h0l0cube | Hacker News Reader

There’s hardly a scarcity of movies at the moment

I think there _is_ a scarcity of quality movies that don't follow predictable / mainstream cliches. Because its too risky to sink a lot of money into something niche. AI will change that. The number one thing it is going to do is reduce the time, effort, and money involved in creating quality films. The result will be more trash for sure. But also more high quality stuff, and a LOT more stuff tailored to narrower interests. And its probably going to be very cheap, and perhaps free for much of it.

We'll still see mainstream franchises though, because IMHO it serves as a form of social glue, i.e. gives people common things to talk about and experiences to share.

What makes you think that a machine specifically designed to generate outputs based on previously observed patterns will produce "quality movies that don't follow predictable / mainstream cliches"?

Three reasons. First, because it doesn't have to output the most common patterns, it can output the less common niche patterns, apply known pattens to more niche topics, or generate unique / uncommon combinations of patterns. Second, the winning pattern (combinations) are selected by humans (i.e. people viewing and sharing); each niche can select for the ones that are most interesting. Third, we won't be eliminating humans entirely. i.e. rather than big mainstream production studios, tiny studios or even one person "shops" with the tooling power of a production studio is what this tech will enable.

> I think there _is_ a scarcity of quality movies that don't follow predictable / mainstream cliches

Probably, but quality movies aren't the gumption behind cost cutting at Hollywood studios. If indie movie producers want to use new technologies, they should go for it, but they won't have access to background actors who are tied up behind large studio contracts, unless they just open source themselves – which seems slightly dystopian.

Why would they need background actors if they can (eventually) generate them?

Exactly. Trying to force the studios to use live background actors is just going to backfire.

The studio executives are trying to extinguish quality movies because they only want predictable mainstream cliches that can churned out inexpensively in enormous volume from AI on a regular schedule.

Compared to books, it's orders of magnitude.

All for indie producers to be able to self-publish their own CG masterpieces (that's already a thing that happens on YouTube), but they'll probably not use the puppeted likenesses of real people that have been grifted from them by egregious contracts from Hollywood Studios (as per TFA)

Books are overrated.

I've read a fair bit of fantasy fiction (think Lord of the Rings derivatives), and after roughly 25-30 books, it just becomes a slog to read through, there are very few original ideas.

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