TCL debuts its second AI-generated film, ‘Message in a Bot’

Generative AI is everywhere now, and the entertainment industry is slowly embracing it more and more as well. After debuting a film earlier this year made using generative AI, TCL is back with another short film made with AI that’s available on its TVs.

The TCLtv+ app on the company’s Google TV and Fire TV sets is a FAST (Free and Ad-Supported TV) streaming app that’s growing in popularity. Earlier this year, TCL announced that it would start to produce “original” content for the app with the help of generative AI.

The first experiment was a short film called “Next Stop Paris” which had an original script, voice actors, and animators, but the bulk of the visuals were created using generative AI, and it was pretty obvious. The film was full of trippy visuals and unnatural faces, and that was just in the trailer alone.

Now, TCL has a second film, this time a sci-fi story called “Message in a Bot.”

The four-and-a-half-minute short film follows the story of humans discovering advanced technology from a crashed alien ship and building a spacecraft for interstellar travel. TCL summarizes:

Humanity has been sent a gift. Technology to open up the universe.

Message in a Bot is a short film that explores what happens when an alien craft crash lands on Earth containing advanced technology and instructions. Humankind builds and launches a spacecraft capable of interstellar travel and journeys across the universe in an attempt to make contact.

The visuals this time around are markedly better, but still obviously heavily reliant on generative AI.

The story is fun, and has a fun twist at the end that I certainly wasn’t expecting – it also provided a bit of nightmare fuel.

You can watch the whole short film on YouTube, as well as in the TCLtv+ app on Google TV and Fire TV.

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