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Agence France-Presse

Gone are the days of six-fingered hands or distorted faces – AI-generated video is becoming increasingly convincing, attracting Hollywood, artists and advertisers while shaking the foundations of the creative industry.
To measure the progress of AI video, you need only look at Will Smith eating spaghetti.
Since 2023, this unlikely sequence – entirely fabricated – has become a technological benchmark for the industry.
Two years ago, the actor appeared blurry, his eyes too far apart, his forehead exaggeratedly protruding, his movements jerky, and the spaghetti did not even reach his mouth.


A version published a few weeks ago by a user of Google’s Veo 3 platform, however, showed no apparent flaws whatsoever.
“Every week, sometimes every day, a different [video] comes out that’s even more stunning than [the last],” said Elizabeth Strickler, director of media innovation and entrepreneurship programmes at Georgia State University in the US.
With Luma Labs’ Dream Machine launching in June 2024, OpenAI’s Sora in December, Runway AI’s Gen-4 in March 2025 and Veo 3 in May, the sector has crossed several milestones in just a few months.


Runway has signed deals with movie studio Lionsgate and television group AMC Networks.
Lionsgate vice-chairman Michael Burns told New York Magazine about the possibility of using AI to generate animated, family-friendly versions of films like those in the John Wick or Hunger Games franchises, rather than creating entirely new projects.
“Some use it for storyboarding or previsualisation [steps that come before filming], others for visual effects or inserts,” said Jamie Umpherson, Runway’s creative director.
Burns gave the example of a script for which Lionsgate has to decide whether to shoot a scene or not. To help make that decision, they can now create a 10-second clip “with 10,000 soldiers in a snowstorm”. That kind of pre-visualisation would have cost millions before.
In October, the first AI feature film was released. Where the Robots Grow is an animated film without anything resembling live-action footage.
For Alejandro Matamala Ortiz, Runway’s co-founder, an AI-generated feature film is not the end goal, but a way of showing to a production team that “this is possible”.


Many see it as a bigger opportunity. In March, start-up Staircase Studios AI made waves by announcing plans to produce seven to eight films per year using AI for less than US$500,000 each, while ensuring it would rely on unionised professionals wherever possible.
“The market is there,” said Andrew White, co-founder of small production house Indie Studios. “[People] don’t want to talk about how it’s made … People want to enjoy the movie because of the movie.”
But White himself refuses to adopt the technology, considering that using AI would compromise his creative process.
Umpherson argues that AI allows creators to stick closer to their artistic vision than ever before since it enables unlimited revisions, unlike the traditional system constrained by costs.
But Strickler says she sees “resistance everywhere” to this movement. This is particularly true among her students, who are concerned about AI’s massive energy and water consumption as well as the use of original works to train models, not to mention the social impact.

But refusing to accept the shift is “kind of like having a business without having the internet”, she said. “You can try for a little while.”
In 2023, the American actors’ union SAG-AFTRA secured concessions on the use of performers’ images through AI.
Strickler sees AI diminishing Hollywood’s role as the arbiter of creation and taste, instead allowing more artists and creators to reach a significant audience.
Runway’s founders, who are as much trained artists as they are computer scientists, have gained an edge over their AI video rivals in film, television and advertising.
But they are already looking further ahead, considering expansion into augmented reality and virtual reality – for example, creating a metaverse where films could be shot.
“The most exciting applications aren’t necessarily the ones that we have in mind,” Umpherson said. “The ultimate goal is to see what artists do with technology.”


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Artificial intelligence

How new video of Will Smith eating spaghetti shows incredible progress in AI video

A still from an AI-generated video of Will Smith eating spaghetti on Google’s Veo 3 platform. The video shows no apparent flaws and is a huge jump on videos of the same sequence from two years ago.

Could AI be used to generate animated, family-friendly versions of films like those in the John Wick series? Photo: Murray Close/Lionsgate

Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan films to get AI reboots in China. But not all think its a good idea

Bruce Lee in a still from Fist of Fury. The film is one of 100 classic kung fu films that the Chinese movie industry plans to revitalise using AI. Photo: Golden Harvest

Jet Li in a still from Once Upon a Time in China. Photo: Golden Harvest

Jackie Chan in a still from Police Story. Photo: Golden Harvest

Jackie Chan in a still from Police Story. Photo: Golden Way Films/ZUMA Press/TNS

Members of SAG-AFTRA on strike in Los Angeles in October 2023. Photo: Getty Images

Crash Landing on You fans flock to Swiss village, officials deny cashing in on them

Korean visitors take pictures on the pier at Lake Brienz in Iseltwald, Switzerland, on May 21, 2023. The lakeside dock has seen an influx of tourists since featuring in the hit South Korean Netflix series Crash Landing On You. Photo: AP

An average of 1,000 visitors arrive each day in Iseltwald, which poses problems for the town’s limited infrastructure. Photo: Keystone via AP

A still from Crash Landing on You, featuring the dock in Iseltwald.

The dock used to be free to access, but now proceeds from the turnstile go towards village upkeep. Photo: Keystone via AP

Every Superman movie ranked, including James Gunn’s new take with David Corenswet

David Corenswet in a still from Superman (2025), directed by James Gunn. Photo: Warner Bros

8 of the best new K-dramas to watch in July 2025, including Law and the City on Disney+

Moon Ga-young in a still from Law and the City, streaming on TvN and Disney+ from July 5. Photo: Disney+

Lifestyle

Entertainment

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Film & TV

A new video created using Google’s Veo 3 platform shows how quickly AI video is progressing, but that’s scaring some in the movie business


A new video created using Google’s Veo 3 platform shows how quickly AI video is progressing, but that’s scaring some in the movie business.
