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

The trailer gives a spot-on sendup on the “Barbenheimer” hype that had moviegoers flocking to see each films back-to-back, although the 2 movies couldn’t be extra totally different — Oppenheimer is a sober biopic concerning 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 era 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 accordance with the creator’s Reddit submit, 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 concerning the state of generative AI proper now.

1. AI-generated leisure is transferring quick — excellent for as we speak’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 probably transfer quick sufficient to tug off the identical sort of “Barbenheimer” sendup to fulfill the second, and the prices could be prohibitive sufficient that they doubtless wouldn’t even attempt. 

In an period when social media content material is a part of the zeitgeist greater than ever, there’s little doubt that the velocity of improvement of AI-generated leisure is completely positioned for as we speak’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 shortly 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 latest weeks, with SAG-AFTRA actors and writers presently on strike and expressing specific considerations concerning the impression of gen AI on their business and jobs. The “Barbenheimer” trailer is an ideal instance: Who wants the dear providers of Margot Robbie and Matt Damon when you can give you a serviceable AI copy? Why use the time-consuming work of artists or editors when you will have the speedy output of Midjourney and Runway Gen 2? 

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

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

The AI-generated Barbenheimer trailer is, for my part, humorous and lovable. However the concept you might wrap considered one of historical past’s most horrifying durations — the event of the atomic bomb throughout World Struggle II, which led to the demise of tons of of 1000’s at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 — in a candy-colored Barbie wrapper and a pink mushroom cloud is equal elements beautiful and surprising. 

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