Amazon AI fund greenlights three animated shows, slashing production timelines from years to months

Amazon's New AI Creators' Fund Sees Prime Video Greenlight 3 TV Series

Though Kourtnee hasn't won any journalism awards yet, she's been a Netflix streaming subscriber since 2012 and knows the magic of its hidden codes. Amazon is continuing to integrate generative AI technology into its business, and next, Prime Video subscribers will get to experience it on the entertainment side with three new TV series. During its AI on the Lot event on Wednesday, the company announced the launch of its new Gen AI Creators' Fund, under Amazon MGM Studios and Amazon Web Services. Three projects are coming to the streaming service at a future date, produced with the help of Project Nara, one of Amazon's AI tools: Love, Diana Music Hunters, Cupcake & Friends (from BuzzFeed Studios) and Punky Dunk. The new creators' fund is aimed at financing startup projects for filmmakers and digital creatives using AI production tech. With Project Nara, they'll be able to access Adobe Suite, Maya, Kling and other tools to bring their stories to life, some of which will hit screens as a new TV show or movie. CNET's Aaron Pruner is attending the Amazon event live and had the chance to view short clips of each show, and says Love, Diana Music Hunters "feels very focused for toddlers and preschool age audiences. Adding that the show turns live-action K-Pop-loving characters into animated versions of themselves, he described it as "a weird blend of familiar-looking, big-eyed animation and AI weirdness." Punky Dunk, which follows a punk-rock duck and his cat bestie through an LA filled with monsters, aliens and family drama, uses stop-motion animation. Cupcake & Friends has a sleepover theme with claymation-style visuals, and Pruner says it has an Adult Swim vibe to it (complete with a Ouija board and references to Bloody Mary). Prime Video isn't the only company moving ahead with generative AI in content. Netflix tapped the tech to de-age characters in a scene in Happy Gilmore 2, while Disney has been looking toward AI for some of its animation processes. What seems certain, however, is that viewers will see more big entertainment brands using it during content production.

Amazon greenlights AI-generated shows for children

Amazon MGM Studios announced Wednesday it has greenlit the first three children's shows that were created under a new initiative to use artificial intelligence (AI) in content development. AI Studios chief at Amazon MGM Albert Cheng told the conference that the technology won't eliminate jobs, it will actually reduce costs and timelines to make it possible to increase the number of productions. Amazon MGM Studios announced Wednesday it has greenlit the first three children's shows that were created under a new initiative to use artificial intelligence (AI) in content development. The GenAI Creators Fund pays filmmakers, digital creators and startups to use AI to develop their projects in a short time frame. "Punky Duck" series director Jorge Gutierrez said he is used to spending two years making a pilot, but his new show was greenlit to run on Amazon after just two months. "The best way I can describe it is, it's like you have sex and then someone hands you the baby," Gutierrez said at the annual AI on the Lot Conference, where the first images of the approved animated series were shown. "It's pretty crazy." Two more projects - "Diana Music Hunters" from Albie Hecht and "Cupcake & Friends" from Buzzfeed Studios -- were also greenlit in a couple of months, reflecting a new approach from major studios. Hollywood's unions and artists have raised concerns about the use of AI, with creatives, writers and actors fearing they could be replaced by digital facsimiles. AI Studios chief at Amazon MGM Albert Cheng told the conference that the technology won't eliminate jobs, it will actually reduce costs and timelines to make it possible to increase the number of productions. But Cheng acknowledged "AI is addictive," adding that it's important for humans to make sure they don't "succumb and let our brains go to waste."

Amazon Launching AI Creators Fund, Picks Up Three Animated Prime Video Shows That Use Its New Tech

The projects include work from 'Maya and the Three' director Jorge Gutierrez, former Nickelodeon exec Albie Hecht and Buzzfeed Studios. Amazon is embarking on a major push to integrate generative AI into all corners of its business, and entertainment is no exception, with the tech company launching a new fund on Wednesday to incentivize creators to use the tech throughout the production pipeline. The company's Amazon MGM Studios and Amazon Web Services divisions announced a GenAI Creators Fund that will offer filmmakers, digital creators and startups funding and access to Amazon's AI tools in order to create "high-quality cinematic entertainment." Says Albert Cheng, the head of AI Studios for Amazon MGM Studios, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter: "AI unlocks a lot of things that always been cost prohibitive for us when we're making storytelling with incredible scope." He adds, "We are able to take world building shows or movies and shoot them on a sound stage in much faster time than it has been in the past." The announcement took place during the tech company's "AI on the Lot" event in Culver City, where the first few greenlit projects emerging from the fund were also unveiled. They include three original animated series: Punky Duck from Maya and the Three and The Book of Life director Jorge Gutierrez and Love, Diana Music Hunters, a series featuring pocket.watch and YouTube star Diana, created by former Nickelodeon exec Albie Hecht. The third series order is Cupcake & Friends from Buzzfeed Studios. Projects from the Fund will use Amazon's Project Nara platform, a new production tool on Amazon Web Services that features third-party generative AI models like Kling as well as a proprietary AI tool trained on Amazon MGM Studios projects. The platform additionally features traditional industry tools like Blender, Maya and Adobe Suite. Project Nara is geared at serving creative teams, says Cheng. "What it tries to do is it streamlines and facilitates the end-to-end workflows of what we do, but also leverages the existing applications that professionals already know about," he adds. Amazon MGM Studios also has access to the platform but, notes Cheng, Amazon's AI Studios are the most engaged users. "Is it being used for other films and TV shows? Yes," he says. "But in what I would call point solutions where most companies are using AI today and it's mostly, 'I have this VFX shot. I wonder if it could be cracked by AI, can you help us with it?' And we have been doing that for a lot of our films and our TV shows." The Fund found its animated projects through referrals from Amazon's animation team and from agents who knew creatives who were AI-curious. That may not have been easy in a field where many creatives feel threatened by, ethically torn about and/or suspicious of generative AI. "You kind of wanted to have people who are leaning into it or curious. Not a whole lot of people are," admitted Cheng. Still, another Amazon exec makes the argument that the Fund will help democratize access to professional-grade tools and funding. Samira Panah Bakhtiar, the general manager of media and entertainment for Amazon Web Services, says the initiative will lead to a "leveling of the playing field when it comes to cinematic storytelling." Amazon is set to next announce the digital creators it's collaborating with via the Fund. "The interesting part about the fund is it brings together established filmmakers as well as digital native creators and technology startups," Panah Bakhtiar says. "So I think it gives, specifically on the tech side, the opportunity for some of these startups to build production solutions for studios and have AWS expertise for validation against some of these real cinematic workflows." She says it will lead to "more storytelling at scale." The new AI effort from Amazon comes as other entertainment companies, both legacy players and tech-forward streaming giants, are trying to integrate the tech into their workflows to make content at a speedier cadence and at a lower cost. Earlier this year for example Netflix acquired InterPositive, an AI filmmaking company founded by Ben Affleck, with plans to make its tech available to creatives on its films and TV shows. And earlier this month YouTube unveiled a suite of AI tools that will let users "remix" shorts, and even insert themselves into other creator's videos. Animation is also seen as ripe for AI disruption, given the ability of models to quickly animate scenes, likely requiring far fewer people to accomplish. Dreamworks founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, for example, said that he believes AI can cut the costs of animated feature films by 90 percent. Cheng, who had been the VP of Prime Video, shifted to his new AI-focused role last summer. The announcements this week are the first fruits of that labor, though they are unlikely to be the last.