Amazon Invests in Fable's 'Showrunner': The AI-Powered Platform Revolutionizing TV Creation

Who, Exactly, Is the 'Netflix of AI' For?

In the ongoing, fiercely competitive race to see who can come up with the most unwanted, unwelcome AI technology, we may have a new frontrunner. According to Variety, Amazon.com Inc. has made an undisclosed investment in Fable, a Bay Area start-up, and specifically in its newly launched Showrunner service, which Fable is touting as the "Netflix of AI." The company describes its software, which went public Wednesday and is currently available via its Discord, as "[an] AI platform that puts a studio at your fingertips, where anyone can create, watch, and personalize series and stories." More specifically, it allows users to use keywords to create scenes or episodes of animated cartoon shows, either of the user's own creation or (more likely, and easily) from existing templates of television programs.

Showrunner, an AI-powered streaming service, launches in alpha this week

Fable, a startup designing tools to generate animated TV shows from scratch, is launching an AI-powered streaming service this week, Variety reports. The service is called Showrunner, and it will allow subscribers to generate scenes, view content created for Fable's in-house AI-generated animated shows and even insert themselves into the animations they generate. Showrunner is launching in alpha, and based on Fable's website, you'll primarily interact with it through the company's Discord to start. Per Variety, subscribers will pay anywhere from $10 to $20 month for credits that can be exchanged for the ability to generate new animated scenes. The word "scenes" is key here. While Fable is launching with a couple of distinct animated shows, they're really more like collections of worlds and characters that subscribers can use to create new scenes. Those include Exit Valley, a Family Guy-inspired riff on the culture of Silicon Valley, and Everything is Fine, a comedy about a husband and wife who are stranded in an alternate world and trying to reunite. The company's goal is bigger than than just original content. Fable founder Edward Saatchi imagines a Disney-owned "Toy Story of AI" where subscribers could generate endless new scenes of Buzz and Woody interacting. For now, though, interested Showrunner users have to settle with knockoffs. Engadget was able to preview an earlier version of Fable's Showrunner AI models back in 2019 that capably generated new South Park episodes based on audio inputs. The startup's model was able to create a watchable copy of the show's style even back then, which might be why Amazon has invested an undisclosed amount in Fable as part of the launch of Showrunner. While creatives remain skeptical to downright antagonist towards AI, companies have started using it more publicly in production. For example, Netflix recently touted its use of generative AI in its original show The Eternaut. Even if adoption grows, though, that doesn't really clarify whether the average film or TV viewer has any desire to generate content on their own, especially if it's as rough-around-the-edges as most AI-generated media is. Besides being a public demonstration of Fable's tech, Showrunner seems like a test to see if that desire is even there.

Amazon invests in Fable -- the 'Netflix of AI' -- where users can create TV shows with prompts

Amazon is backing a San Francisco startup behind a platform that allows users to create AI-generated scenes and episodes for TV shows by simply typing in a prompt. The amount of Amazon's investment in Fable was not revealed Wednesday in reports by Variety, The Wrap and others. Fable has called its Showrunner service the "Netflix of AI," where creators can use their own ideas and words to shape a story from scratch or inside a world someone else has already created. Visitors to the Showrunner website are directed to join Discord where they can watch and make episodes. The public launch features one original show called "Exit Valley," which is described as a "Family Guy"-style satirical comedy set in Sim Francisco and taking on tech personalities such as Elon Musk and OpenAI's Sam Altman. Fable previously released nine AI-generated episodes based on "South Park," created using its proprietary AI model. The episodes have been viewed more than 80 million times, according to the company. Fable was co-founded by CEO Edward Saatchi, who previously co-founded Oculus Story Studios, a division of Oculus VR, which was acquired by Meta. "Hollywood streaming services are about to become two-way entertainment: audiences watching a season of a show [and] loving it will now be able to make new episodes with a few words and become characters with a photo," Saatchi told Variety. "Our relationship to entertainment will be totally different in the next five years." Showrunner is focused on animated content at the start because it requires much less processing power than realistic-looking video scenes, according to Variety. Saatchi told the magazine Fable wants to stay out of the "knife fight" among big AI companies like OpenAI, Google and Meta that are racing to create photorealistic content.

Amazon Throws Money at 'Netflix of AI'

Amazon poured more than $1 billion into its streaming series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, only for it to get a pretty tepid reception. So Amazon appears to be going for a new approach to streaming content: If you think you can do better, prove it. According to a report from Business Insider, the company is funding an AI streaming platform called Showrunner that, in theory, will let people create their own shows using generative AI tools. Showrunner is the creation of Fable Studio, a virtual reality-turned AI-powered media company that blew up in 2023 after it released an AI version of South Park (which it happened to drop smack dab in the middle of the ongoing writers' strike that sought to secure protections against the encroachment of AI on the livelihood of creatives). A limited version of the service launched last year, dubbed the "Netflix of AI," with some AI-generated content that viewers could iterate on to create custom episodes and storylines. Now, with Amazon's backing, it seems Showrunner is going wide. Per Variety, it is expanding beyond its closed alpha test of 10,000 users and launching widely this Thursday. The service will be free to use at first, but will eventually allow users to buy credits to create their own content using the platform's built-in content and generative AI tools. Those credits will cost between $10 and $40 per month, according to a pitch deck obtained by Business Insider. Viewing the content will be first, and users can share the content via YouTube and other third-party platforms. Gizmodo reached out to Amazon for comment on its reported funding of Showrunner, as well as any potential content partnerships the company may enter into with Fable Studio. Amazon has not responded at the time of publication. For now, it seems that Fable will be limited primarily to the company's own content, which is apparently AI-generated to begin with (and frankly not that well received by audiences who have been subjected to it). But the company certainly has its eyes set on bigger brands. According to Variety, Fable is in talks with Disney and other Hollywood studios about potentially licensing IP for Showrunner, which would allow users to use that material to create their own versions of familiar movies and shows. Showrunner has some interesting ideas, which is ironic since creating your own version of an existing property is pretty uninteresting and glorified fan fiction. For instance, if a person creates a show on Showrunner that another person remixes, 40% of the revenue of the remix goes to the original creator, according to Business Insider. But, again, the fact that this is AI-generated content at the outset means there is likely a pretty low ceiling on the level of quality those shows will achieve. Fable Studio founder Edward Saatchi, to his credit, seems fully aware that this might suck. “Maybe nobody wants this and it won’t work," he told Variety. Probably! But hey, if you can burn someone else's money to find out for sure, who can really blame you?

Amazon-backed Showrunner launches "Netflix of AI" platform -- and you can star in your own show

A startup that once made headlines for generating AI episodes of "South Park" is officially launching its next act today (July 30). And as someone who got early access to the service more than a year ago, I can honestly say it feels like this might be the future of streaming. Today, Showrunner, a San Francisco-based startup backed by Amazon and founded by Oculus and Pixar veterans, unveiled what it calls the "Netflix of AI," a platform that lets anyone generate custom TV shows and episodes in minutes using natural language prompts. Users can write an idea, upload a selfie and instantly star in their own sitcom, action series or satire, all animated and voiced by AI. The launch follows viral success from the company's "South Park" AI experiment, which drew more than 80 million views despite being unauthorized. Now, Showrunner is betting big on a new form of "playable television," where viewers are also creators, cast members and collaborators. "The next big streaming platforms won't be passive," CEO Edward Saatchi said. "You'll describe the show you want to watch and start watching it within minutes. Then make new episodes, add yourself and your friends -- fighting aliens, solving crimes, or starring in your favorite sitcom." At the heart of Showrunner is SHOW-2, the company's proprietary AI model capable of writing, animating, voicing, editing and producing full episodes of television. Early access users can sign up now at Showrunner.xyz, where a waitlist of more than 100,000 people is already queued up to try the platform. The product builds on Showrunner's original SHOW-1 model and AI Showrunner Agents, which can handle every role in a traditional TV pipeline, from writer's room to post-production. According to co-creator Philipp Maas, who led the team behind the South Park AI demos, the goal is to democratize Hollywood. "Soon, anyone will be able to create their own hit show or become a showrunner for someone else's world," Maas said. Showrunner's flagship launch title is "Exit Valley," a "Family Guy-style" animated series set in "Sim Francisco." The show lampoons tech giants like Sam Altman and Elon Musk, portraying a world where AI moguls promise to end work and money, while becoming the richest humans to ever live. "Satire is the age-old tool of the powerless against the powerful," Saatchi said. "'Exit Valley' lets people use AI to fight back -- by putting themselves in the show and making scenes that mock the daily tech news." Some of the first episodes were created by Fable, Showrunner's parent company, while others will be made by users and judged by a panel of filmmakers. The platform's episodic structure makes it easier for AI to handle, though Saatchi admits that "epic arcs like 'Breaking Bad' or 'Game of Thrones'" are still out of reach for AI storytelling. While OpenAI and Google have AI tools that can generate video or control software, Showrunner's edge is integration: the platform can animate, voice, edit and deliver a watchable episode without needing multiple tools. From experience, I can tell you that it's also far more interactive in that it lets users create within familiar IP worlds. The hands-on experience makes Showrunner more fun and creative for streamers. Saatchi envisions a future where Disney or Lucasfilm could offer branded models, "Star WarsGPT" or "PixarGPT," that fans subscribe to in order to create stories within their favorite universes. "The Toy Story of AI isn't just a cheaper movie," he said. "It's playable. You'll watch a film on Friday, and by Sunday there will be millions of fan-made scenes -- all monetizable by the IP holder." The launch of Showrunner marks a clear shift toward two-way entertainment. Instead of waiting years for renewals or green lights, creators can spin up a season on their own. It also gives aspiring writers and animators; especially those without Hollywood connections, a new path in. Just ask Dov Friedman, co-creator of indie TV pilot "Hutzpah," who said Showrunner finally gave his team the tools to bring their series to life after years of rejection. "We couldn't even get a yes or a no," Friedman said. "Showrunner gave us everything we needed to develop a full season without a big studio." With Amazon, Intel and Fable's Emmy-winning team behind it, Showrunner may be the first of many platforms redefining what it means to watch, make and be in a show. Users can expect more of the following: For now, users can sign up at Showrunner.xyz to get started on creating their own shows.

Amazon invests in 'Netflix of AI' startup that lets you make your own shows

Amazon is investing in Fable Studio, the startup best known for a viral AI-generated South Park knockoff. According to Variety, Amazon's investment (the amount of which was not disclosed) is going towards the startup's new streaming platform, Showrunner, which the company describes as the "Netflix of AI." Specifically, that means a streaming platform that lets users create shows with Showrunner's generative AI model. In 2023, Fable Studio published a research paper about its SHOW-1 model that trained on South Park episodes and subsequently posted a 20-minute South Park-style clip entirely written, voiced, and illustrated by generative AI. Part of the video's virality was because it was posted during the SAG-AFTRA strike, which dealt with writers and actors negotiating protections against studios use of AI. The video was created without the permission of the South Park creators. Fable asserted in the research paper that it was an "experimental, non-commercial endeavor aimed at exploring the potential of artificial intelligence, voice synthesis, and deep learning technologies." But now, Fable has launched a commercial endeavor with Showrunner that went live on Wednesday. The idea is for users to become the creators by generating their own animated shows or inserting scenes and characters into existing shows. Fable CEO and co-founder Edward Saatchi told Variety the company is pursuing partnerships with Disney and other Hollywood studios to license their IP for the platform. The existing shows created by Showrunner include a Silicon Valley satire called Exit Valley that looks like Family Guy and a show called Everything Is Fine that has a Tim Burton-esque quality. It's unclear whether this is the result of licensing partnerships with copyright holders or from training data acquired without permission. Mashable has contacted Fable Studio for comment. Showrunner is live in alpha mode on showrunner.xyz and Discord. Saatchi told the outlet that the platform is free to use and watch videos, but will eventually charge $10 to $20 a month for credits for users to want to generate new content.

Amazon Backs 'Netflix of AI' Startup Fable With User-Generated Animation Launch - Decrypt

The startup is backed by Amazon's Alexa Fund, though investment terms remain undisclosed. A startup backed by Amazon's Alexa Fund has debuted an AI-powered streaming platform that lets users generate animated shows in minutes, raising questions about whether audiences actually want this kind of storytelling. Founded by Edward Saatchi and the late Pete Billington in 2018 following their work at Oculus Studio, Fable operates an online entertainment platform focused on generative storytelling, building on and blending AI, VR, and narrative craft. Billington, an Emmy-winning director, helped pioneer interactive media with The Wolves in the Walls, a VR adaptation of Neil Gaiman's book. He passed away in March, shortly before the start of Showrunner, the company's flagship user-generated animation tool. The platform allows users to input a prompt or upload a photo, instantly generating voiced, animated episodes with custom characters. The network's opening titles include Exit Valley, a Family Guy-style satire of Silicon Valley figures, and Ikeworld, a surreal romantic comedy set in IKEA. Licensing intellectual property remains among the biggest hurdles in generative entertainment, especially for studios wary of handing narrative control to users. Asked about this challenge, Saatchi told Decrypt the solution may lie in building purpose-trained models that reflect the same care and coherence of the original works. "In terms of traditional IP, we are in talks with studios about building models around their storyworlds," Saatchi said. "In the example of a Star Wars model, users would pay to create episodes, scenes and stories with it, with a revshare to Disney and terms of service stating that Disney owns that content." That openness to collaboration doesn't mean Saatchi is blind to the risks. In an earlier interview with Variety, he acknowledged the uncertainty around whether audiences actually want to participate in storytelling. "Maybe nobody wants this and it won't work," Saatchi said. "We've seen false starts before -- VR was supposed to explode when headsets passed a million units. It didn't." The same tension mirrors Saatchi's open acknowledgement. While he sees Showrunner as a step toward co-creative media, he draws a clear distinction between superficial prompt-based output and deeply considered narratives. Instead of AI tools letting people just make what they want, Saatchi told Decrypt their platform could instead provide "a coherent playable storyworld with care and attention from artists." Saatchi argues AI video tools have been understood primarily as production shortcuts, having been "accepted in Hollywood as a VFX timesaver." But with Showrunner, Saatchi sees generative content as "a whole new artistic medium." The product's closed alpha drew 10,000 users, and the waitlist has since surpassed 100,000, the company said. Fable will keep viewing free but plans to charge creators $10-$20 monthly for credits to generate hundreds of scenes. Users can export and share videos on platforms like YouTube. An Amazon representative told Decrypt that the investment has come from its Alexa Fund, which provides venture capital funding for voice innovation, artificial intelligence, hardware, and entertainment, and "not Amazon overall." The investment was in the company, not a product, the spokesperson clarified.

'Maybe nobody wants this and it won't work': Amazon is chucking an undisclosed amount of cash at AI-generated TV shows, but I'm struggling to see the appeal

This may scandalise some younger readers, but once upon a time you'd turn on the telly and simply watch what was on. The question of what to watch these days has only gotten more complex, with a wealth of streaming services now vying for your eyeballs. Well, Amazon may be touting AI as the answer -- I mean, just judging by the undisclosed amount they've thrown behind startup Fable. The Edward Saatchi-owned outfit has already been around for a few years, debuting with VR game Wolves in the Walls back in 2019. What's piqued Amazon's interest more recently is Fable's AI-generated 'streaming' service Showrunner (via Variety). Hop into the Discord, and you can start mashing out prompt-based animated scenes that are all about as bleak, monotone, and ugly as I was personally expecting. Having already run as a closed alpha test with 10,000 users, Showrunner is currently free to use. The recent public launch offers a few 'story worlds' to plug prompts into, all powered by Fable's SHOW-2 AI model. Exit Valley is a popular 'show' on the Discord, but very much reads to me like shockingly average adult animation that's trying way too hard. Using Exit Valley's AI stage you too can generate scenes like this one, where a cartoony Tom Cruise jabbers with a Kim Kardashian that refuses to skip arm day -- and also inexplicably sounds progressively more Australian with every rep. Fable wants to eventually implement a 'credits' system for creators, planning to charge between $10 and $20 a month to generate more AI scenes. However, all Showrunner content will remain free to view in the hopes of encouraging folks to watch and share clips on third-party video platforms like YouTube (where Showrunner's f-bomb heavy schtick may not even get demonetised). Edward Saatchi told Variety that the vision for Showrunner is to create something "playable," in a not entirely dissimilar way to mashing dolls together in a dollhouse. He said, "The 'Toy Story of AI' isn't just going to be a cheap 'Toy Story.' Our idea is that 'Toy Story of AI' would be playable, with millions of new scenes, all owned by Disney." Dropping the big D isn't just a powerful name drop, as Fable is apparently in talks with the house of mouse about licensing its IP for Showrunner. But even with such upfront ambition, even Saatchi is saying: "Maybe nobody wants this and it won't work." In conversation with Variety, he says this within the wider context of his earlier ventures into VR not taking off as he had hoped. But Saatchi also concedes that "today AI can't sustain a story beyond one episode," and that the technology is perhaps better suited to "deeply episodic shows with characters largely resetting every episode -- sitcoms, police procedurals, space exploration." I mean, points for self-awareness, but I'd argue even traditional intrigue-of-the-week shows often feature season spanning narrative arcs or even simple callbacks. Don't worry, I'll spare you my impassioned defence of Elementary as the genuinely better take on 'Sherlock Holmes, but make it a cop procedural' from the 2010s. Anyway, besides that, I was already looking at Showrunner's dollhouse and loudly wondering what the point of it all is. For one thing, deciding what I want to watch via traditional streaming services already requires work amounting to a low-level research project -- I already enjoy that work, so why would I put my energy into the well-draining black hole of AI? For another thing, 'playing' with established characters and IP just makes me think about the good old, wonky days of machinima -- to say absolutely nothing about the fanfic burning a hole on my hard drive. With these creative outlets and more already available to me, I don't really feel the need to play within the confines of Showrunner's corporate, AI playground.

'Netflix For AI' CEO Hyping Animated Slop Admits 'Maybe Nobody Wants This'

Showrunner is a new video content platform that will specialize in user-generated AI slop. The idea is people will pay to use generative-AI tools to produce their own TV, starting with short animated sketches. Who asked for this? Amazon for starters, which is investing an undisclosed amount in the company behind Showrunner. But even the startup's CEO, Edward Saatchi, doesn't sound entirely convinced by the pitch. "Maybe nobody wants this and it won't work," he told Variety. Billed as "Netflix for AI," Showrunner is the work of a small, dozen-person start-up called Fable cofounded by Saatchi, who previously specialized in VR entertainment for Oculus. The platform is in beta right now, with users experimenting on "making" episodes for two shows: a Family Guy-looking tech satire called Exit Valley, and a sci-fi romcom about a husband and wife who get transported to another world while fighting at IKEA. Early users are currently on the company's Discord serving up AI prompts like "Ali G meets Joe Biden and Asks him if he wants to buy some feet pics from this super hot chic he knows." Others include Joe Rogan and Donald Trump arguing about the Epstein files. None of them are actually funny. Of all the ways you could spend time on the internet, watching cringe slop on Showrunner might currently be one of the worst. But that may not even be the point. "The 'Toy Story of AI' isn't just going to be a cheap Toy Story," Saatchi told Variety. "Our idea is that 'Toy Story of AI' would be playable, with millions of new scenes, all owned by Disney." He seems to feel that the interactivity of rapidly sharing, refining, and iterating on prompts gives Showrunner a level of interactivity more reminiscent of video games than traditional TV or YouTube. According to Fable, the goal is to charge users monthly fees to make the shows. Some of that money will in turn go to companies like Disney, who it's currently in talks with for licensing rights. There are also reportedly guardrails in place to keep the AI-generated shows somewhat narratively consistent and prevent copyright infringement. Considering that all of the content already looks like it's ripping off of Fox animated sitcoms, we'll see how that goes. Disney and other Hollywood studios are already suing one AI company for allegedly stealing their IP.

Amazon backs a new service described as the "Netflix of AI" that would let people make their own TV shows using existing IP

Amazon is investing in generative AI that uses existing IP to make new episodes of TV shows Amazon has backed a new AI service that is being called the "Netflix of AI", and it's another depressing development in the use of generative AI in the entertainment industry. Amazon has invested an undisclosed amount of money in Showrunner, developed by tech company Fable. The so-called "Netflix of AI" is a service that, according to Variety, "lets you type in a few words to create scenes - or entire episodes - of a TV show, either from scratch or based on an existing story-world someone else has created." The program will start out as free to use, and then users will be charged between $10 and $20 per month. "Hollywood streaming services are about to become two-way entertainment: audiences watching a season of a show [and] loving it will now be able to make new episodes with a few words and become characters with a photo," Fable CEO Edward Saatchi told the publication. "Our relationship to entertainment will be totally different in the next five years." According to the report, the software is only able to create episodic content that resets each time rather than longer multi-episode arcs - so perhaps it won't be replacing traditional television too quickly. Saatchi is reportedly in talks with Disney and other studios about licensing their IP, which comes in the wake of the House of Mouse recently calling AI a "bottomless pit of plagiarism" and teaming up with Universal to sue AI company Midjourney. There are also concerns among film and TV creatives that they'll lose their work to algorithms, along with the environmental costs of generative AI.

An AI-powered streaming service is launching into alpha this week, backed by Amazon

It's called Showrunner and it lets you be well... a showrunner of sorts. As we continue to grapple with the rise of artificial intelligence, we're seeing some invest heavily in the technology while others do what they can to protect themselves from it. For one, The Bad Guys 2 has a specific clause in the credits of the film that states the movie cannot be used to train AI models, protecting its style and creative choices from being copied by the technology, and yet this comes at a time when Amazon is backing an AI-powered streaming service. Yep, if you find that there's not enough human-created content to watch on the many, many existing streaming platforms, soon you'll be able to grab a subscription to Showrunner, a platform where an AI can generate scenes and even entire episodes from scratch all from a simple prompt. As per Variety, Showrunner comes from the mind of San Francisco startup Fable, and it'll be heading into alpha this week. It's described as the "Netflix of AI," and it's structured in such a way that you can even prompt your own ideas or build on an existing world/idea created by someone else. Backed by Amazon, the creator of Showrunner, Fable's Edward Saatchi, believes that AI is being used incorrectly in the entertainment space, and that rather than using it to simply generate VFX, for one, it should be used as a medium for an entire new form of entertainment, both in film/TV and video games. The aim of Showrunner is also to partner up with major production houses like Disney, in an effort to licence their IP and enable users to create projects based on their franchises, under the pretense that Disney owns anything that has been generated. To begin with, Showrunner will debut with a small alpha audience who can help sculpt the platform and improve it, with one of the few original projects it offers being a Family Guy-like series known as Exit Valley. It will function by having users pay $10-20 a month for credits that can be used to generate new animated scenes, not full episodes, suggesting that it will be a massive (and expensive) community effort to expand any project on the platform.

Create Entire TV Shows With Showrunner AI : The Future of TV and Animation?

What if your next favorite TV show wasn't written by a team of seasoned writers, animated by a studio of skilled artists, or acted out by Hollywood's brightest stars? Instead, imagine it being crafted entirely by an AI -- a digital showrunner capable of scripting, animating, and producing a fully realized series with nothing more than a few text commands. Bold claim? Perhaps. But platforms like Showrunner, developed by Fable, are already turning this vision into reality. With the backing of industry giants like Amazon, this AI-powered storytelling tool is not just a futuristic concept -- it's here, and it's poised to disrupt the entertainment industry as we know it. In this feature, Wes Roth explores how Showrunner is reshaping the creative process, offering tools that empower anyone -- from hobbyists to seasoned professionals -- to create high-quality animated TV shows with minimal resources. You'll discover how its intuitive text-based interface simplifies complex tasks like scriptwriting, character design, and scene composition, and why its collaborative ecosystem is sparking a new wave of community-driven storytelling. But as this new technology provide widespread access tos content creation, it also raises provocative questions about the future of traditional media roles. Is this the dawn of a more inclusive creative era, or the beginning of an AI-driven upheaval in entertainment? Let's unpack the possibilities. Showrunner functions through a text-based command interface, allowing you to design scenes, characters, and storylines with remarkable ease. This streamlined system simplifies the traditionally intricate processes of animation and scriptwriting. By entering specific commands, you can define character actions, dialogue, and even camera angles, allowing you to bring your creative vision to life. The platform's intuitive design ensures accessibility, offering professional-grade results regardless of your experience level. This makes it an invaluable tool for both aspiring creators and seasoned professionals looking to experiment with new storytelling methods. Showrunner offers a comprehensive suite of features designed to enhance storytelling and empower creators. These include: The platform supports a wide array of genres, offering flexibility for creators to explore various storytelling styles. Its debut series, Exit Valley, features satirical portrayals of public figures such as Elon Musk and Donald Trump, showcasing its potential for humor and social commentary. Upcoming themes, including Western and sci-fi settings, further expand the creative possibilities, making sure that users can tailor their projects to suit their unique visions. Unlock more potential in AI content creation by reading previous articles we have written. To begin using Showrunner, you need to familiarize yourself with its basic commands on Discord. While this may present a slight learning curve, the platform's collaborative environment makes the process more approachable. By observing and engaging with other users' creations, you can quickly adapt and refine your own projects. This shared space fosters a sense of community, encouraging experimentation and innovation. The platform's design lowers the barriers to entry for aspiring creators, making professional-quality content creation more accessible than ever before. Showrunner's ability to provide widespread access to storytelling tools has led to comparisons with platforms like Netflix, earning it the moniker "Netflix of AI." By providing professional-grade tools to individuals with limited resources, it amplifies the diversity of voices in media production. However, its rise also prompts critical discussions about the future of traditional media roles. Will AI-driven platforms like Showrunner replace human writers, animators, and actors, or will they serve as complementary tools that enhance the creative process? These questions highlight the broader implications of AI in reshaping the entertainment landscape. Amazon's investment in Fable underscores the growing recognition of AI's fantastic potential in the entertainment sector. This financial backing not only validates Showrunner's capabilities but also positions it for further development and scalability. As the platform evolves, it could become a cornerstone of AI-driven media production, influencing how stories are created, shared, and consumed. Amazon's involvement signals a broader industry shift toward embracing AI as a critical tool for innovation in storytelling. One of Showrunner's most notable features is its precision editing tools, which provide granular control over every aspect of your project. You can fine-tune scripts, adjust character actions, and modify scenes to align perfectly with your creative vision. This level of customization ensures that every detail contributes meaningfully to your narrative. Whether you are a novice creator exploring new ideas or an experienced professional seeking to push creative boundaries, Showrunner offers the flexibility and control needed to bring your stories to life. Showrunner represents a significant advancement in AI-powered content creation. By offering an accessible yet robust platform, it enables you to produce high-quality TV shows with unprecedented ease. Its potential to disrupt traditional media industries is matched by its ability to create new opportunities for creators worldwide. As AI continues to redefine the entertainment landscape, platforms like Showrunner are poised to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of storytelling, allowing a more inclusive and innovative era of content creation.

I just tried the 'Netflix of AI' and enjoyed it far more than I wanted to

After two years of hype, Showrunner, the so-called 'Netflix of AI' is finally here to lay waste to the entertainment industry and replace such costly and frivolous crafts as writing, acting, effects and editing with AI slop. Obviously, I had to try it out. With funding from Amazon's venture capital arm, the Alexa Fund, Showrunner is a product of the San-Francisco start-up Fable led by Edward Saatchi. Its aim is to allow anyone to create their own television series using AI. Launched publicly today following a closed alpha testing, it's free to use (for now). To my horror, I found it fairly entertaining... for a few minutes. "Netflix is cooked food", I saw one person write in the group chat on the Discord channel while I was trying Showrunner out. Hmm... really? For now, the AI video generator is pretty limited. There's only one 'series' or animation style available - the 'tech satire' dubbed Exit Valley. To generate a scene, you have to access Showrunner via Discord like in the early days of Midjourney and interact with the AI bot. There's a lot of hand-holding, with options to choose from a very limited selection of characters and scenes, although you'll be able to use text prompts to create your own. You then use a text prompt to describe the scenario and the gist of the dialogue that you want to generate. But the delivery and personality of the output appears to be very much the work of the AI model, which has a sense of humour so deadpan that it's often hard to tell where the jokes are supposed to be. Exit Valley might sound like a narcissistic theme for Showrunner's first outing, but it's a smart choice. Encouraging us to mock AI bros makes it less easy to completely hate the project, and the fact that the output is obviously satire may help avoid potential lawsuits for defamation if not copyright from celebs. More animation styles are on the way. Short scenes of a few seconds can take up to five minutes to generate. Since the videos are generated in the public chat channel, you can browse others while you wait. Some of the characters are more recognisable are others. In one test prompt, I asked Showrunner to generate a video in which Sam Altman of OpenAI sought to console a distraught Tom Cruise, who was crying because AI was going to take his job. I wouldn't recognise either of the characters that were generated, although the AI did get Cruise's foul mouth right if reports of his tirades from the set of Mission: Impossible 7 are to be believed. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are more recognisable. Unsurprisingly, they appear to be the most popular characters to use. At the time I tried it, there were only 20 characters readily available, and who they are might say something about the people using the platform. While many match the tech theme, there are a few odd guest appearances (Boris Johnson and TS Elliot?). The only women were Kim Kardashian, the biotech fraudster Elizabeth Holmes and former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati Is Netflix cooked? I found the AI's clunky sense of humour momentarily fascinating, but the lack of laughs quickly became tiresome, and the ability to closely control the output seems limited. Ultimately, it's fun for five minutes of novelty, and I can see some people loving it for making short satirical memes, but then what? While it's free to use and download videos for now, Showrunner eventually plans to charge $10-$20 a month for credits. That might wash with content creators. I can see social media channels springing up based on Showrunner-generated material. But are individual consumers going to cancel their Netflix subscriptions in favour of generating their own bad AI skits? Even once the variety of animation styles expands, watching an AI bot interpret your own ideas is hardly entertainment. My other doubt about that is more existential. What happens to the social element of shared experiences if everyone's generating their own content that nobody else wants to watch because they can make their own? We could see a further atomisation of culture with people retreating into their own personal world of entertainment. If you try Showrunner out, let me know in the comments what you think of it. For more AI video news, see Adobe's Unfinished Creator Film campaign, which it wants you to remix.