“A factory worker can (within reason) always find a new job.” Bezos can always work at the factory if he loses his job. Any one of these C-suite people can become the janitor at the company they currently are in control of. Their risk is not any greater than the factory worker. As a matter of fact, it is far far less, if it can even be called risk in comparison to the person legitimately living pay to paycheck working with all the dignity of wearing a diaper in one of Bezos’ warehouses. The difference is they’d rather be dead than end up in the very cages they set-up for other people. That’s the perspective.
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Look - I’m not a fan of what Bezos, Zuckerberg, Altman, Musk and all the other Broligarchs are doing now. I’ve been pretty critical of the AI BS. I’m not trying to defend any of that.
What I’m trying to point out that there are other aspects to executive comp, and not every c-suite occupant is a disgrace to humanity. And unless one has first hand information, it’s good to take click bait with a grain of salt.
There’s been lots of discussion about privilege latey, and who feels privileged. In the end this is all relative. Everyone feels unprivileged if they look at those above them in the social hierarchy, yet there are plenty of people that beg to differ because their circumstances are much slimmer pickings.
Flame artists consider CEOs privileged. Ueber Eats drivers living with room mates find Flame artists privileged.
All a matter of perspective. And we know our own circumstances well, and struggle to fathom how others live, yet may have plenty of prejudices about it.
And we’re getting way off topic. So I’ll stop here, no need to dig a deeper hole than it is already.
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HEADLINE: AI escapes virtual realm, makes ladder for humans to climb out of holes, gets elected president.
I was going to chime in on this, but the sheer length of the thread that was building, as I visited and saw it towards the top each time, put me off. I also didn’t want to make it too abstract (like my contributions to the NFT thread a while back) given that this is about livelihoods and not more semi-buried than the NFT debate “was” (for it truly feels like an archaeological artefact now, existing only as embers). I could easily drown in the thread, and also drown out people’s interest in the appropriateness of my response with my probable “wall of text” (a comically-abusive response from someone to me on the Smoke board back in the day).
But, I am presently half-way through reading a proposal for a book on Generative AI and Visual Media for an editorial board that I am on, and it is ringing sh*tloads for bells for me. My responses for that are, presently, a little sprawling and unshaped but I feel that I will indeed make an attempt to chime in on this debate sometime in the near future, but will make sure that I read a good number of the 483 (!) thoughts that are forming the Flame choir here. 483=community importance, or what! Laters…
Cheers
Tony
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Tech bros read another book challenge, part infinity.
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assuming that fourteen year olds have mastered the art of reading…
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Ends up very generic though, no? Not really a memorable spot aside from being told they used AI to generate what in essence was just drone stock footage. But that’s kind of the game though, right? Take a commercial that no one would care about, put AI lipstick on the pig, and get us all talking about it. You can’t be mad at marketers for marketing. The AI stuff looks perfectly fine by the way; well done. Kudos on that. I’ll further add, I can see this absolutely being the move going forward and I think they were very smart in leveraging what AI can do well.
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My latest generative AI test
https://www.instagram.com/p/DDOtLJzp4Aa/
TBH I absolutely love generative AI you can just create crazy stuff not possible before. I reckon there’s gonna be loads of work in it. I got 2 TVCs on the go and poss some bits for a film. With generative AI every shot is a VFX shot. Get stuck in.
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Surprisingly coherent. Most AI videos that are more than one clip are not.
Yeh the trick there is to use a chat GPT prompt generator. So rather than creating a load of individual prompts you are having a big conversation with the GPT. You can see me get better as the video progresses. So in the party scene at the end, I’m having a constant back and forth with it describing different elements. And once it knows what’s going on at the the party, all I have to say is something like "OK now 2 chicks on the ground, lying on their crashed motorbikes, they are laughing, and it already knows the whole scene to place them in, how to dress them etc.
The grade helps too
Edit to add, you end up with prompts like this:
"A photo of the Electric Dirt Bike Rodeo finale at dawn, capturing a singularly striking, unforgettable image of raw energy and charisma. At the center of the chaos stands a breathtakingly beautiful woman in her 20s, her athletic physique and confident stance dominating the frame. She holds an electric guitar in an epic power pose, her fingers caught mid-shred, exuding the wild spirit of the moment.
She wears a sleek, glossy motorbike helmet with its visor up, revealing intense, piercing eyes framed by smudges of mud and sweat. Her mud-slicked leather jacket clings to her figure, streaked with dirt and reflecting the fiery glow of the massive burning banner overhead. Her jeans are ripped and caked with grime, and her boots are planted firmly in the debris-strewn ground, embodying both strength and defiance.
The massive banner reading “ELECTRIC DIRT BIKE RODEO!” burns fiercely behind her, its flames casting vivid orange and red hues across the scene. The roaring flames illuminate her guitar, streaked with scratches and dirt, and highlight the mud splattered across her helmet, jacket, and bare arms.
Around her, dirt bikes spray mud into the smoky air, their LED accents flashing faintly through the haze. Sparks from the burning banner rain down, adding an electric energy to the scene. In the distance, a chaotic crowd cheers wildly, waving vibrant smoke flares in red, blue, and green. Fireworks explode overhead, their colors blending with the fiery backdrop to create a kaleidoscope of light.
The ground is littered with confetti, glowing flare sticks, and shattered debris, creating a gritty, rebellious setting. Every detail—the mud, the flames, the shredding guitar, and the unrelenting confidence of the woman at the center—captures the untamed, defiant spirit of the Electric Dirt Bike Rodeo in vivid, photo-realistic detail."
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Cool stuff!
Was that prompt just for 1 shot? Also what video model are you using?
Yeah so each shot the GPT would create a prompt like that at my direction, then you feed the prompt in to Midjourney, have a look at what comes back, then ask the GPT to make any tweaks.
I was using midjourney for the stills creation, then Kling AI to turn it in to live action.
For each shot I would create say 100 midjourney stills, choose the best 15, render them in Kling, and select the best one for the edit.
This is the prompt creator tool:
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Can you elaborate on the cost of doing all of this, and ideally break it down to what it costs at current rates (which are investor subsidized) and what this might possibly cost when the investor funding runs out and this is all full-price (i.e. what happened to all the streamers 2 years ago).
It’s oen thing to get excited about abilities. But only if we think this will be affordable enough long-term vs. a hot flash. And yes, some things will get more efficient, but the underlying tech still is not for the faint of heart and will remain in that class.
As we saw in recent news Sora is now available for $200/mo at 1080p, and presumably a capacity limit at the non-enterprise level.
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OK for that vid I prob spent the following:
Kling $500
Midjourney $100
Chat GPT $50
My time, maybe equivalent to $6000, but if it was a legit job, with client feedback it would be double that.
I have no idea to what extent the AI offerings are subsidised, but other AI systems have got orders of magnitude more efficient v quickly. My guess is they won’t get that much more expensive. but even if they 10x the price it would be affordable for an actual job.
It’s so weird that all these flimsy websites are pushing the boundaries rather than the serious VFX providers. I’m creating insane AI transitions through the most basic of websites. Having to download mp4s and create ProRes with Topaz. Trying to use ARRI log stills as image references, to create a more log like source image, without blow out highlights. The tech behind it is insane, but the process to use it is so unprofessional.
Yes, but the costs that you incurred, and even if they were triple that, including your time — are artificial costs currently subsidized by investors to get attention and theoretical market share. That is in no way sustainable or scalable ultimately.
Unless something radical changes with the computing and energy resources needed.
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AI may not take your job, but it could take your life.
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This might be of concern…