Who, Exactly, Is the ‘Netflix of AI’ For?

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- In the ongoing, fiercely competitive race to see who can come up with the most unwanted, unwelcome AI technology, we may have a new frontrunner. According to Variety, Amazon.com Inc. has made an undisclosed investment in Fable, a Bay Area start-up, and specifically in its newly launched Showrunner service, which Fable is touting as the “Netflix of AI.”

The company describes its software, which went public Wednesday and is currently available via its Discord, as “[an] AI platform that puts a studio at your fingertips, where anyone can create, watch, and personalize series and stories.” More specifically, it allows users to use keywords to create scenes or episodes of animated cartoon shows, either of the user’s own creation or (more likely, and easily) from existing templates of television programs.

What seems to be missing from Fable and Amazon’s efforts is consideration for the most essential question in any consumer product strategy: Who, exactly, is this for?

The potential copyright issues alone are exhausting. Fable’s CEO and co-founder Edward Saatchi told Variety that he is “in talks” with Walt Disney Co. and other studios about licensing partnerships, but there’s plenty of potential here for studios and IP holders to slap the company with a Midjourney Inc. type lawsuit.

When Saatchi tested (and showed off) the software two years ago with nine short South Park episodes, he didn’t bother securing rights or permission from the show’s creators. Reportedly, he reached out to assure them that it wasn’t for commercial use. While the animations got over 80 million views, South Park’s cultural cachet was likely the driving force.

With the software’s star power still a big if, the question of who Showrunner’s intended audience is looms even larger. On one hand, sure, animation (and, for that matter, live-action filmmaking) is costly, laborious and difficult. I’m certain there are plenty of would-be Walt Disneys who’d like to make their own little cartoons. But — and this is the tricky part — who wants to watch them?

It’s tiring enough to scroll through the constant stream of clumsy generative-AI “art,” with its unsettling visuals and recurring anatomical errors— so the idea of actually watching a full scene, let alone an entire episode, of AI-generated animation feels especially unappealing.

What Showrunner is offering seems  like the streaming equivalent of self-publishing in the book world: empowering for the authors, but rarely read by anyone else. The company’s website proudly promises “No agents” and “no studio gatekeepers,” but here’s a potentially controversial opinion: Sometimes gatekeepers are good. They serve to filter out untalented artists and elevate gifted ones. The burning desire to tell a story does not necessarily translate to the skill of telling one, and if you don’t believe me, go spend a day at a third-tier film festival sometime.

Beyond the specifics of this software, however, lurks a larger disconnect between the people who create entertainment and the people who create technology intended to supplant entertainment. Saatchi insists, “Our relationship to entertainment will be totally different in the next five years,” and claims that “Hollywood streaming services are about to become two-way entertainment: audiences watching a season of a show [and] loving it will now be able to make new episodes with a few words and become characters with a photo.”

As someone who engages with film and television all the time, the concept is genuinely puzzling and not particularly appealing. The idea of “two-way entertainment”— where loving a show or movie leads to inserting oneself into it or reshaping its narrative through personalized storylines — runs counter to why we engage with art. Part of the joy in watching something is experiencing a creator’s vision. The expectation that audiences should actively participate in shaping entertainment feels more like a shift toward self-involvement than storytelling. It’s hard to imagine watching a favorite show and thinking, “The only thing that would make this better is if I were in charge of it.”

The creators and consumers of fanfiction may disagree, but these matters are best left to the professionals. Perhaps that, ultimately, is what this all boils down to. The generative AI that we’re constantly being bombarded with, in the fields of prose writing, visual art and now streaming television, comes at the expense of human artists, sidelining the very creativity and craft that give meaning to the work itself.

People in all walks of life — especially in business and tech — love to describe themselves as “storytellers” (even when they’re only “telling stories” in the most generous sense of the phrase), while simultaneously taking every opportunity to kneecap actual storytellers.

Each so-called advancement rests on the premise that anyone can create high-quality art. But the reality is, not everyone can. Sure, I can daydream my own episodes of The Sopranos or Breaking Bad, to use two of my favorite series as examples. But that’s exactly where those fantasies belong: in my head. What makes those shows exceptional is the mastery of David Chase and Vince Gilligan, who understand how to build complex characters, construct meaningful conflict, and deliver rising action and satisfying conclusions.

Of course, it would be far more convenient — and far more profitable — for streaming platforms if anyone could replicate that expertise. And that may be the most troubling part of this deal: not just that software exists that devalues artists, erases creative labor and potentially infringes on copyrights, but that Amazon is so eager to invest in it.More From Bloomberg Opinion:

This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Jason Bailey is a film critic and historian whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Vulture, the Playlist, Slate and Rolling Stone. He is the author, most recently, of 'Gandolfini: Jim, Tony, and the Life of a Legend.'

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