The charming film put the "art" in artificial intelligence.

What happens when you blend an AI image-generating machine, a 98-year-old woman named Lillian as well as Harry Potter? The result is 'HAIRY POUTER,' a short film from director Chris Carboni that incorporates ever more whimsical AI-generated visuals with comments on the classic novel by a hilarious nonagenarian.

"Lillian is my maternal grandmother," says Chris. "She and I have always enjoyed a great relationship , and I've recorded her reviewing for around 10 years."

As AI images generators first began to dominate the web at the mid-2022 point, Chris saw the stars meet to create a project which could make use of his hours of listening and aid in understanding his connection to this new technology. "I was surrounded by mixed feelings regarding these generatorsthat I wanted to explore] and was searching for an opportunity to learn about them," explains Chris. "At the moment, I was talking to my grandmother who just finished reading 'Harry Potter,' that I had bought for the occasion as a birthday present."

From there, the film was put together in a flash with a nimble crew - "my grandmother as well as my wife, and also our composer and sound designer who was the complete team" - - and all the rest was (futuristic) history. With the power of AI remain to advance at an alarming rate, we caught up with Chris Carboni and discussed everything related to AI and art.

The image of this video is stunning. What tools did you employ and how did you achieve this to get these result?

Chris Chris: We used MidJourney, back in the first version. It began by entering the words of Lillian's without editing and checking what the program could produce using just the words in the interview. We loved the artistic style that it had come up with through just a few rounds of regenerating images. So, I wrote down the characteristics of the artistic direction that was based on this picture it produced.

The first picture we got was Ron wearing his long, wavy hair, and he looked incredible. I think it was sort with shoulders up. Also, he clearly didn't wear a shirt. The guy looked as if he was a sea god. Then, when we saw an image of Harry and Ron in a group, the camera posed they were almost hugging and we thought, "Oh, this is amazing."

The AI was allowed to develop these intriguing ideas, and then when we found one we loved We pushed the AI to follow that line, so that it would always be entertaining and simple to follow.

What was it like applying AI to this incredibly human-centric story?

Chris Chris I was making this film I had some degree of anxiety [about AIin general]. However, I definitely enjoyed working with it for this particular project. I believe that this was a good use case of the project due to the application of AI was a key element of the overall story.

This is what made it fun and interesting and special. The project was about the unpretentious but adorable connection between AI and human beings. It wasn't a project where we chose to not put a dollar into illustrators and decided to use Artificial Intelligence instead. This was a project in which the use of artificial intelligence was foundational for the storytelling.

What do you think about AI becoming a creative force?

Chris Chris: There's definitely something compelling there, but it's become a lot more complex since these generators are so ubiquitous. Their potential has been unleashed, and expanded into all of these different applications. This means that the subject is now a bit more complex than I think that it was once in terms of my own understanding and feelings about it.

It seems that anyone working in the creative field must figure out what this means for their own work and be prepared to accept that things are probably going alter. With that change comes bring opportunities to create amazing innovative things. But also the automation of a lot of the art that we artists love. This makes me sad, if I'm being honest. It worries me that art will be reduced in value and becoming more expensive than it is already.

Are you planning to use this technology for your job in the future?

Chris Christopher: Okay I enjoy using AI to enhance my emails and as a sort of personal assistant capable of answering questions, giving explanations to complex concepts and completing repetitive tasks. When it comes to creative work though, I don't fully understand. I certainly don't want to employ the process in a manner which would substitute human talent within my teams. It is my opinion that the result would not be as good.

Much of the work we do relies on collaboration with others. A project produced from start to finish using AI is dependent on inputs coming from a person's mind. Some cases may be fine however, more often than not the productions are aided by an entire team of professionals that work in tandem, each one bringing their own expertise and unique insights to the table.

Some of the most interesting uses I can think of are to generate initial ideas, and kicking off the process of creating. It could be for raising money for a project and showing the initial concepts for getting something off of the ground. However, for animation it is essential to have complete control over the details of a scene, both in terms of production and artistic motives. That level of control will likely be coming soon, but it's certainly not that far off.