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Chapter 1: What is the controversy surrounding C-Dance 2.0 and Hollywood?
For those who know that questioning everything includes questioning this show's existence. The Last Show with David Cooper.
A brand new video of Brad Pitt fighting Tom Cruise isn't real, but it circulated around the internet and it caused quite a stir in Hollywood. I am joined by Carmi Levy. It is time for technology time. This video was, of course, AI. Carmi, welcome to the show. Good to be with you, David. Thanks for having me. Did you watch this video of, what was it, Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt?
Yeah, sort of like post-apocalyptic landscape. I mean, it would make for an amazing movie trailer. It looked and felt that good. Like the level of cinematic goodness was off the charts. Cinematic goodness. That's a brand new phrase. I like it. It's yours. But it was really cool. And like, it sort of caught you off guard. I can see why it went viral because the quality was there.
It involved obviously two actors who, you know, are incredibly famous. And so like all the ingredients of virality were there. And then as it turns out, it wasn't real at all. It was AI generated by this new tool called C-Dance 2.0, which, you know, has brought to us by the good folks at ByteDance, who also, not coincidentally, brought us TikTok.
So, you know, yet again, we're having this conversation. Remember when OpenAI released Sora and then Google released Veo, now they're at Sora 2 and Veo 3. We had sort of similar freakouts, right? Like now the studios have issued cease and desist letters to ByteDance basically saying like, you either protect our copyright or we'll see you in court.
Every single time a new video generator app is released that kind of raises the bar in terms of fidelity and capability, this happens. Content goes viral. Everybody freaks out that it's the end of days, that AI is taking over, that the established world order of how movies get made is under threat. And now, because C-Dance is so much better than all that have come before it, apparently,
and it doesn't have those protections built in, and it has that cinematic quality to it that the other video generators don't have, it is really causing a lot of people to go, hmm, have we perched another or have we reached another AI inflection point? It's a reasonable question to ask. Two ways I want to take this conversation.
One, I saw the initial thread on Twitter X, whatever you want to call it. And yes, I was surprised by how real it looked. But then just underneath it, there was just regular average everyday Twitter users with like, you know, normal numbers of followers who then posted their videos of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt doing things in cinematic environments using seed dance. Seed dance? Seed dance.
Seed ants. Seed ants. Seed ants. Okay. Okay. I'll learn how to say this one. I guess they're playing on ByteDance, but I don't see it, but whatever. Okay. Good try, ByteDance. That's right. ByteDance. Byte me, ByteDance. Yes.
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Chapter 2: How did a Best Buy employee manage to get 99% off on MacBooks?
Now, okay. And it was regular everyday users and they were generating videos that this, you know, Hollywood person or person that got all this attention was generating. And they were just as good. These tools are in the regular user's hands right now. Which is so wild to me.
This isn't like some person who had access to some crazy preview technology making a point and no one could access that tech. Anyone can do this right now. Okay, that's one thing I want to say. And I think that's what's scaring the studios is that someone with no training, no film skills whatsoever can...
can't hold a camera, can't edit to save their life, can't block out a scene, but can take something that's already out there. So, you know, the original trailer that someone also created using just a couple of lines of a prompt and then build on that and continue to, you know, raise the quality bar without any knowledge is astounding.
It threatens the world order that the entire entertainment industry has followed for the better part of the last century. And it's got a lot of people scared for good reason.
Okay, the other thing is, if the Screen Actors Guild gets their act together to kind of prevent this stuff, or even if regulators and politicians pass laws to prevent deepfakes of actors so that Hollywood somehow gets preserved and saved, you know, people can't make AI movies, whatever, with actors' likenesses. Yeah.
Even if that happens, those laws will just likely cover like North America, Western Europe, okay? No one's stopping like Chinese companies or any company that isn't subject to these laws that will happen in the West to protect actors. And then... you know, the internet's open. I can just go on these platforms and generate videos. I don't think this is stoppable is what I'm trying to say.
Even if the actors get together and try to stop it, even if lawmakers get together to try to stop it, I don't think there's anything stopping this technology because I could just go online and do it, you know, like sure it might be illegal, but what stopped people from downloading music when Napster was around, even though they knew it was illegal, you know?
So I just don't think this is going to be stopped. I agree with you. If you sign a deal or if you put a law in place, that authority stops at the border. But we know that the technology is global. And so Disney, for its part, they signed a licensing deal with OpenAI. So they're allowed to use Disney characters in their Sora video generator.
So even as Disney is suing everyone else, it's sidling up to the AI enemy and recognizing that it needs to at least get with the program. But I think there's also a recognition that outside of this one deal between one studio and one platform, You know, there are those out there around the world who frankly don't care.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of AI-generated content on copyright laws?
In other words, you're not just viewing your AI friend remotely, but now you can go out and actually pretend that they're there. They aren't. But, you know, hey, whatever. And so. You know, I think it reflects a change in how we're using technology. We're spending less time on social media, more time with AI.
More of us are using artificial intelligence for companionship, I think, according to the apps data. But one in three men and one in four women under 30 have already established emotional bonds with a virtual AI partner. What? !
Where are these numbers coming from?
This is from Eva AI. So this is the company that created the app, created the platform. Okay. According to the company that's deeply incentivized for you to have an AI relationship, the numbers are really good. But, you know, talking amongst my friends, they all admit to having extended conversations with an AI bot.
Am I the only one who's crazy for not doing this? I can't be the only one who hasn't told an AI bot that I love it.
I think we should be wary, and I certainly am. I've played with it just for research purposes, but the notion of me spending time with a technological companion is actually kind of creepy and certainly not something I want to be able to discuss with my wife and explain to her, guess what, honey? I'm spending time with the AI bot tonight. Doesn't make any sense.
I hope that's not your only reason, Carmi. Fear of your wife. Come on. No, absolutely not. Exactly. I'll play with it for the purposes of research. But beyond that, I find it really creepy because they do a really good impression of a human, but we know full well that they aren't.
And of course, the more time you spend with one, the more likely they are to go off the rails and do things that are unpredictable. And also, the more time you spend with it, the more data it collects on you. And Lord only knows where that information is going. It's probably going back into training the AI bot and also being shared in ways that we cannot control. So, you know, no thank you.
It sounds like a fun thing to sit in a cafe and chat with an AI bot, but the security implications of that, let alone the mental health and psychological implications of it are just too frightening to behold. And it kind of makes me wonder who would actually willingly go out into public and be seen doing this. Certainly not me. I would wear a disguise.
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Chapter 4: How do AI tools impact the traditional film industry?
Now, places where I live, a lot of people selling them don't want to pay a staging company these days because it can cost tens, $20,000 to have your place look nice when it was just empty after you moved out. So what they'll do is called virtually stage it. And all the listings, at least that I've seen, I don't know if it's a legal requirement, but it says virtually staged.
But my place had like a weird doctored image, like the HVAC holes, which are painted black, just didn't exist. And when I walked in, I was like, oh, that's weird. Obviously, I saw it. It didn't bother me. But like, I think this is happening in subtle ways to a lot of real estate listings, just like photos slightly doctored and then kind of buyer beware.
But this seems like a particularly egregious example in Quebec.
Yeah.
That's right. And I think it's fine as long as you put labels on, let people decide for themselves if that's acceptable. But if you're not going to fess up up front, you're trying to hide reality. And quite frankly, you deserve to be punished. Carmi Levy, technology analyst. It's time for technology time is the name of the time we spend together each week.
Carmi, it has been a joy having you on the show. It has been a joy. Did I say that right? I don't know. It has been a joy having you on the show. Yeah, that's what I meant to say. Thanks for being here, buddy. I had a good time. Thanks so much, David.
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