A tale of two Odysseys: Nolan's blockbuster gets AI

A tale of two Odysseys: Nolan's blockbuster gets AI-generated competition

Odysseus: The Fall is the 2nd AI-generated film from Ash Koosha, whose debut screened at Tribeca

It turns out Matt Damon is not the only Odysseus appearing on screen this summer.

The makers of the controversial fully AI-generated film that debuted at Tribeca Festival last month are back — this time with an artificial-intelligence reimagining of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey.

Ash Koosha, founder of AI movie studio Fountain 0, has cast his own likeness as Odysseus — saying he fits the look of a Bronze Age Greek — in Odysseus: The Fall, set to release in late summer.

That’s not long after Damon’s turn as the cunning king of Ithaca in the widely-anticipated Christopher Nolan blockbuster, The Odyssey, which hits theatres July 17.

Both films are adaptations of the poem, which tells the story of the king as he returns home from the Trojan War. But where Nolan’s film has a budget of $250 million US, Koosha’s was made on "mid-five figures" (he wouldn’t tell CBC News exactly how much he spent).

"I would never be able to get a budget to display a monster in the sea and a cyclops in a cave," he said, noting he made the film part-time over three months and spent the budget mostly on cloud token credits, a virtual currency to pay for software.

"That becomes such a far-fetched dream if not for these tools and technologies, that I think it’s important to at least experiment and prove that there’s a level of vision-to-screen possibility here with AI."

What do people think of AI-generated movies?

Not everyone agrees. When the film's teaser hit YouTube on Tuesday, it drew some scathing comments. "I f--cking weep for humanity. This is absolutely ghastly," wrote one person. "If it doesn't have real actors then it's not a real movie," wrote another.

"I like how in the very first few seconds you can see the bubbles coming out THROUGH the top lip, not from the mouth," wrote another commenter. "Amazing way to show how great AI is."

Though Nolan’s rendition is not without its own controversies, the AI film’s executive producer, Tom Rogers, acknowledged in a news release that people are likely to find Nolan’s "superior."

He said the hope is to "stimulate a broad conversation on not only the great artistry that [Koosha] has brought to this film, but the many implications it has for the future of film-making."

ACTRA urges governments to take action

The release of the teaser for Odysseus: The Fall coupled with the news last week that AI "actor" Tilly Norwood will be starring in an upcoming comedy-drama should serve as "loud alarm bells for anyone who believes in human storytelling — this includes the Canadian government," said Marie Kelly, national executive director of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA).

Amid a rise of synthetic competition, performers "are concerned about their craft, their place in the world of entertainment and their livelihoods," Kelly told CBC News in an emailed statement.

"There is no place in our industry, and no use in the humanity of art, for replacing performers with synthetics. ACTRA rejects any attempt to do so."

Kelly said the government needs to pass laws to regulate AI, and that its effect on performers might be a "canary in the coal mine."

"If strong laws around AI — especially moral rights — are not passed now, it may soon be too late to act for all [of] society."

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While Rogers acknowledged the "real issue" of AI displacing jobs, he said he thinks detractors will come around.

"I think consumers will begin to see that there’s huge value in the quality of what they’re getting in this art form, as opposed to the impressions today that are based on seeing a lot of AI slop in the form of short-form video," he said in an interview.

Who decides if a film is AI slop?

Brenda Austin-Smith, a professor in the department of English, theatre, film and media at the University of Manitoba, was unimpressed with the film’s teaser.

"If what I saw in that trailer is the best that can be done, no one should fear [AI]."

Still, Austin-Smith told CBC that AI in filmmaking is a legitimate tool — and she would consider showing an AI film to her students.

"[If] somebody with a creative vision and insight and skill and imagination used some of these tools to tell a good story that was really gripping, in a really satisfying way, then sure, it could make its way into a classroom," she said.

"But if people think — or somebody who wants to be a filmmaker thinks — that all I have to do is plug in some prompts and AI will make the film for me, it’s going to be crap."

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Koosha is undeterred by criticism, saying critiques are "absolutely valid."

"It’s an education for us to know what people are hating the most and the least, and what we should do next," he said.

Odysseus: The Fall will be available for streaming late summer at Fountain0.com. It has a run time of 135 minutes.