Friendly Pizza, UFOs and the Joy of AI-Generated Video | Matan Cohen Grumi | TED

This is how my sister reacted when I told her I will be speaking on this stage. [Remember when your teacher told mom you’d never do anything with your life?] Fair enough. If I was that teacher, I would have probably said the same. Ever since I was a kid, all I ever wanted to do was to explore and have fun. And it turns out I was right. If it weren't for fun, I wouldn't have been here today. Two years ago, I joined the founders of a start-up called Pica to help build one of the very first AI video creation platforms. Those were the early days of generative AI, and while everyone was excited about re-imagining new realities, we were more interested in reimagining the one we were living in, our own. So we started to apply the AI on our own photos around the office, and immediately felt there was something magical about blending the real and the unreal. But one video stood out. This is Jesse from our office. And don't be alarmed, now, this is not real. I remember we laughed so hard when we watched this clip for the first time that we just knew we were onto something. We assumed that if we were having so much fun with it, everyone else would, too. So we pushed it out into the world. The response was incredible. People everywhere started inflating, melting and squishing by the millions. (Laughter) But while those short clips were incredibly fun, we still felt something was missing. A story, a narrative, something you could truly relate to. That led us to develop the technology that enabled you to be the main character of your own story. And by using only one photo, you could do anything you can imagine. While we were building it, living on late night pizza deliveries and barely seeing the sun, the news was full of a UFO sighting in new Jersey. The next video I created was made without using any video assets whatsoever. Only four images were used: my own photo, a slice of pizza, a UFO and a park bench in new Jersey. [New Jersey, December 14] (Video) There does not appear to be any imminent threat to public safety or national security. But I do think everybody has a right to know. (Crashing) Pizza: Hello. (Music) (Music ends) (Applause) Fun, right? The reason I created this video, combining my love for pizza and the UFO sighting, is because I could. That technology made it so easy that in just a few hours, I could create this beautiful, weird, and fun chaotic mix of real and unreal. But what happens if we play around with the ratios? What if instead of adding ourselves to AI videos, we add just a little bit of AI to our own real videos? (Video) Pizza: Hello! This unlocked a new kind of visual, a new kind of visual that feels real because it is real and it's grounded in reality. And suddenly, we started seeing audiences connecting to AI in ways we'd never seen before. And I think the reason is it's because those were real people in their real-life moments, and the AI is just there to enhance it by a little bit. But I can't help but wonder where this can go next. What if we could reimagine our own reality, guided by our emotions? Not to replace the real thing, but to celebrate it, to honor it, to remember it, not only as it was captured by the lens, but as it was captured in our hearts. We capture those special moments because they mean something to us and they make us feel something. And in my opinion, truly feeling something is the most fun thing of all. So when I look back on the kid I used to be, I'm sure he would be absolutely stoked for us to be here today.

Thank you. (Applause)