- Marc Andreessen says AI could revive comedy.
- AI tools like Luma AI and OpenAI’s Sora allow animators to create shows quickly.
- Studios like Pixar are already carefully considering the use of AI in their productions.
AI is already giving us some answers, but venture capitalist Marc Andreessen thinks that AI might soon be able to give us a laugh, too.
In an interview with Substack CEO Chris Best, the Andreessen Horowitz co-founder said the technology could be the revival comedy needs.
“Comedy is in desperate need of a renaissance,” he said, “It’s basically dead, so maybe AI will save comedy by changing the way stories are told.”
Andreessen said that as video generation tools like Luma AI continue to improve, animators will be able to produce shows at a faster pace.
“You’ll be able to basically come up with a joke and draw a cartoon in 30 minutes with the same quality as someone who needed a full production facility 20 years ago,” he said.
AI-generated videos are already causing controversy among artists, as developers begin to experiment with various text-to-speech tools, such as Open AI’s Sora and Google’s VEO. Some artists have accused these models of “artist washing,” but AI productions are already underway in Hollywood.
“I think it’s really great that we’re going to see an explosion of comedy and animation coming out of this,” he said.
While live comedy is arguably booming more than ever, with ticket sales exceeding $900 million last year according to Bloomberg, animation hasn’t seen quite the same boom.
Netflix has pulled its anime programming and implemented a series of layoffs to cut costs after losing 200,000 subscribers in 2022, according to the Los Angeles Times. Max (formerly HBO Max) also significantly reduced the number of anime titles it streamed that year.
It’s still unclear whether AI is the spark animation needs, but studios like Pixar and Disney have already begun cautiously experimenting with it. Pixar’s 2023 film “Elementals” used neural style transfer, an AI software that can manipulate digital images and video, to create unique animated flames, Wired reports.
“Creative people in any discipline suddenly have a new superpower: this technology,” Andreessen said.
