Finding the ai discourse on this very interesting but feel it’s a little misguided. A lot of talk of “oh he could’ve hired an animator for this” but like, it wouldn’t have looked like AI? That’s clearly the goal in that sequence. It’s weird and unpleasant in a way that only AI, particularly the crappy older models that Resnick is using, can really be. I don’t think you can argue he’s using stolen work here because that work has been so brutally distorted that it’s unrecognisable. It doesn’t look anything like anyone else’s work it just looks like something Alan Resnick would make. The argument that “ai is like collage” rarely holds water but I think it does here. It triggers the exact reaction that I think it’s suppose to. Am I excusing it? I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve developed my opinion enough or know enough about Resnick’s process to say with confidence that I think this is a an acceptable use case or not, I’ve just developed it enough to think the discourse is a bit off.

Beyond that this is the most film-like short film he’s ever done and it got me mad hyped for his feature length one. He’s just so good.