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STORY: :: "Gia Pham" / Reply AI Film Festival

This animated film was screened at the Reply AI Film Festival in Venice, a short-film competition that awarded the innovative use of AI and the quality of storytelling

:: Reply AI Film Festival

The theme: "Synthetic Stories, Human Heart."

Filippo Rizzante is the CTO of Reply, an international consulting group that works in AI and digital media, and who organized the competition.

"We have not seen if those technologies can be used correctly in order to produce, for example, a good story, a good piece of content. (WHITE FLASH) We still need as humanity to have heroes and people that we embody somehow and so on, and this will not change, honestly. What will change is how we produce content and how we distribute and how we consume content, for sure."

Running during the official Venice Film Festival, the AI short film festival might be expected to ruffle a few feathers.

Rizzante says they initially struggled to find partners.

"Most of them were saying 'No, no, we don't want you'. Because obviously it is a transition where all the industry is worried about."

Rob Minkoff was one of the festival's judges.

He co-directed "The Lion King" and directed "Stuart Little", among other films.

:: File

He says the technology should be viewed as a new tool for artists.

:: “William, or The Fragile Harmony of Latent Spaces” / Reply AI Film Festival

"You know, I think that AI will present a tremendous opportunity, mostly in that you can do things using AI that are not even possible. They're not conceivable or possible to do in any other way. And so I think that that's naturally how things will evolve."

AI was a key concern in last year's Hollywood strike, with actors fearing the technology would make theft of their likeness common or reduce available roles.

Actors are also worried about entirely AI-generated actors, or “metahumans.”

:: "To Dear Me"/ Reply AI Film Festival

On Tuesday the top award went to 'To Dear Me' by Gisele Tong, a poignant narrative exploring a young woman's struggle after her parents' divorce.

Rizzante says the technology is likely here to stay.

:: "One Way" / Reply AI Film Festival

"There are again people that will always fight back, as always in any kind of transition, and people will be enthusiasts. But it's like a tsunami. You cannot stop it."