"An insult to life itself."

_{I posted this ad-hoc rant on LinkedIn yesterday, and it got 15K+ impressions, so I figured I’d add it to the newsletter. If you’ve already read it, feel free to move on, if not, here it is. And if you haven’t seen the monstrosity in question, here that also is.}

<sub>Studio Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki, after seeing the first piece of AI-driven animation, was famously quoted as calling it an 'An insult to life itself.' Call me dramatic, but that's how this Toys R' Us 'brand film' makes me feel.

And I'm not anti-AI. I use AI just about every day.

It's not going anywhere and is already a regular part of our workflow.

But if it's to become a regular part of our lives as the final execution of art and entertainment and advertising and culture, then it needs to be judged just as anything else would. If you're going to call it a 'film', then it needs to be judged as a piece of film.

If a junior creative presented that Toys R' Us script in folio school, you'd barely blink and ask, 'what else have you got?'

If a working creative in an agency presented it, you'd seriously start asking questions.

If a production company put forward that treatment, you'd never work with them again.

'We made it with AI' is not a smokescreen that makes up for a soulless, unimaginative, creepy void of nothingness. It doesn't replace the need for insight and idea and craft. Just like any other technology or technique or aesthetic that came before it.

And for toys of all things. Physical, tactile, playful objects that unlock worlds of imagination and childlike wonder. And not a single scent of it throughout the entire 60 seconds.

There's already better examples of AI content out there, anyone praising this is simply suffering from an atrocity of taste.

It's brought back this piece I wrote in March about discernment and taste and opinions, and how we're going to need them more than ever now. And this is living proof.</sub>