TCL made five short films to help normalize AI-generated movies and TV shows

The big picture: TCL, one of the world's largest television manufacturers, has produce five AI-generated short films to air on its free, ad-supported streaming service. The movies, made over a 12-week period, are part of a pilot program meant to normalize AI-created TV shows and movies.

While technically impressive at times, the flicks are plagued by the same shortcomings we've seen in other modern AI-generated content. For example, most human characters in the movies exhibit vacant expressions, struggle to vocalize emotion, and move unnaturally. Speech often isn't synched properly with mouth movements. Written words and text are also problematic, usually resulting in in a jumbled mess of undecipherable characters and symbols. And that's just scratching the surface.

There are some positives to consider with the current state of AI video – namely, the fact that quality is improving at an impressive rate. As 404 Media highlights, "this is the worst it will ever be" and that's at least something. They were made using a variety of well-known AI tools including Runway, ComfyUI, and Nuke.

For its part, TCL didn't simply phone it in. Each film had lots of real people working on them in pre-production and post-production roles. Chris Regina, TCL's chief content officer for North America, told 404 Media that more than 50 people had a hand in creating the content. "These are stories about people, made by people, but powered by AI."

Paul Johansson, who directed Sun Day – a film about a girl living on a rainy planet that wins a lottery to see the Sun for the first time, said he understands that technology is coming – fast – and they have to be prepared for it.

The fact that humans had a significant role in shaping the films helps push the narrative that AI isn't going to replace real actors in Hollywood – at least, not right away. Assuming AI continues to evolve like it has in recent years, the need for human oversight could taper.

The short films, averaging five to 10 minutes in length, are available to view in TCL's streaming app and have also been shared on YouTube.