AI-generated content moved past writing term papers to creating beer and pizza ads that had social media buzzing — and even Elon Musk taking notice.
The ad for the nondescript beer shows AI-created likenesses of people at a neighborhood barbecue partying as the 1999 hit “All Star” by Smash Mouth plays in the background.
The beer guzzlers laugh and smile awkwardly while sucking through blue-colored cans and bottles — many of which are oversized and deformed.
The rough technology makes the revelers look demonic, with some having more than 10 fingers, but the AI-created ad could pass for a low-rent Bud Light promo.
“This is what hell looks like,” wrote one Twitter user. “At least we know now.”
At one point in the commercial, the fire used to heat up the barbecue spins out of control and turns into an inferno that erupts across the horizon.
“Does the LSD come with the beer or is that BYO?” a Twitter user wrote.
Meanwhile, a second AI-generated commercial — this one selling a fictional brand of pizza — got the attention of Pizza Hut and led Musk to post and exploding head emoji.
A Reddit user who goes by the name “PizzaLater” used the video software tool After Effects to piece together a 30-second clip in which AI-generated people munch on pizza from a fictional restaurant called “Pepperoni Hug Spot.”
“Are you ready for best pizza of life?” the AI-powered, digital-sounding narrator says in the clip while computer graphic meant to depict a young boy chowing down on a slice.
“Bring friends down to Pepperoni Hug Spot,” the narrator said.
The commercial then cuts to a scene showing a family of four — all of whom appear to be missing teeth while gazing at one another with zombie-like eyes and creepy stares — at the table while eating pizza.
The next image shows a digital likeness that depicts a chef, though the figure is awkwardly holding what appears to be pizza dough in his hand while smoke emanates from it.
“Our chefs make pizza with heart and special touch,” the narrator said as the commercial cuts to a shot of what appears to be pizza being cooked in an oven.
The narrator than ran down a list of ingredients used in the preparation of the “Pepperoni Hug Spot” pizza, which includes “cheese, pepperoni, vegetable, and more secret things.”
The ad then cut to a shot of the delivery driver, whose eyes dart in different direction while steering the car on what is normally the passenger’s side.
“Knock knock who’s there? Pizza magic,” the baritone-voiced computer-generated narrator said.
The next scene depicted a pizza lover eating a slice, though she chewed on a portion of the plate instead of the actual pizza.
“Pepperoni Hug Spot pizza,” the narrator added. “Your tummy say ‘Thank you’, your mouth say ‘Mmmm’.”
The commercial ended with the sales pitch: “Pepperoni Hug Spot. It’s like family, but with more cheese.”
Pizza Hut’s Twitter account posted, “my heebies have been jeebied.”
Musk, who was an original investor in OpenAI before quitting the board, tweeted the emoji.
In a subsequent Reddit post, “PizzaLater” said he created the ad in about three hours using various AI tools.
He said the script was conjured up by GPT-4, which is OpenAI’s most advanced chatbot that can “generate, edit, and integrate with users on creative and technical writing tasks, such as composing songs, writing screenplays, or leaning a user’s writing style.”
The images in the commercial were created by Midjourney, the AI-powered software that is similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E deep learning model, according to “PizzaLater.”
The Reddit user said that the video was put together through the use of Runway Gen-2, the creative AI product developed by Runway Research.
The narration and voice over was developed through ElevenLabs, the maker of “Prime Voice AI” which “lets you voice any length of text in top quality, all while automatically matching what is being said with how it’s being said,” according to the company.
Finally, “PizzaLater” piped in music that was created with the Soundraw AI Music generator.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
