Publication: 311 Institute
Author: Matthew Griffin
Publication Date: July 13, 2016
At this year's 26th annual Cannes Lions International Festival an audience was shown a series of short films in the New Directors Showcase which highlights emerging talent. What the audience didn’t know, however, was that one of the entries, from advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi, was directed – and even crewed by AI’s, not humans. The agency challenged viewers by asking, “Can a film made by machines move you?” Saatchi’s Los Angeles based shop “Team One” and Zoic Labs put together a different kind of “film crew” comprising AI programs that included IBM’s Watson tone analyser API, Microsoft’s Ms_Rinna, Affectiva’s facial recognition software, an EEG and a custom neural art program.