US advertising AI

Toys ‘R’ Us has just released an AI commercial and it’s giving these people nightmares

Dominic Carter. Updated June 28th, 2024

Whether you like it or not, we are living in the age of AI. (That’s artificial intelligence in case you’ve been lucky enough to miss the discourse of the last few years.)

AI tools have many practical uses when it comes to processing data, however when it comes to creativity, things get more complicated. Teachers are already despairing over essays that have clearly been churned out by the virtual assistant ChatGPT, and when it comes to art, the opinions get even more heated.

That’s because AI scrapes the work of existing human artists to create its content. Some argue that this works in a similar way to how people process artistic inspiration, while others claim that it’s theft. Either way, the backlash is often monumental, with films like Late Night with the Devil coming under fire for using AI-generated imagery.

However Toys ‘R’ Us has taken things one step further by releasing an advert made with OpenAI’s new video generation tool, Sora. And the result makes for typically uncanny viewing.

As you can see, the technology just isn’t quite there. The whole advert has a bizarre slickness and stiltedness which makes it feel inhuman and unnatural. Hardly what you want in a charming toy advert.

The dead giveaways are the awkward head movements of the characters, the blurry background details, and the calling card of dodgy AI art: incorrect hands.

Sora is not open to the public yet, however this hasn’t stopped people tinkering with similar tools such as Luma Labs Dream Machine. Ever wanted to see your favourite memes turned into short videos for some reason? You’re in luck, because now you can.

Fascinating. Just what the planet needs right now. Depending on your opinion of AI, you can interpret that as sarcastically as you like.

Podcaster Joe Russo summed up the feelings of many X users though by saying the Toys ‘R’ Us advert “fucking sucks.” And the replies he got pointed out why so many people are unhappy with the way AI is going.

Elsewhere people were chipping with their thoughts on not just the commercial, but the AI-ification of the media in general.

Source @Mr_AllenT