Your weekly skim of what the Machine Cinema crew debated, discovered, and dropped into the chat. Too busy to read? Have a listen instead.
This newsletter is edited and maintained by the Machine Cinema community. If you’d like to become a sponsor, let us know!
Edited by Elizabeth Kealoha. Images and Pod Digest by Ant Neely.
Want to know what 1,000+ Generative AI creators are whispering about behind closed doors? Consider yourself invited.
Full disclosure, we had our robot friend help us pull all this together and sometimes they are prone to making harmless mistakes.
Overheard in “Basecamp”…
🎬 Who Owns an AI Film, Anyway?
The OpenAI Critterz talk reignited one of the thorniest questions in creative AI: IP ownership.
If a film is largely generated with AI, who holds the rights — studio, model provider, or crew?
For filmmakers, this isn’t abstract: distribution, contracts, and royalties hinge on the answer.
Link: Vanity Fair — Who Would Actually Own a Movie Made by AI?
🎵 Music Industry vs. AI: Round Two
Labels are firing back at AI platforms, accusing one of “stream ripping.” Spotify added new policies to label synthetic tracks and fight spam.
The legal battle could define how music platforms classify and compensate AI-generated works.
For creators, the blurred line between “artist” and “instrument” is now a business risk, not just a philosophical one.
Link: TechCrunch — Spotify updates AI policy
Link: CreativeBloq — Foo Fighters’ playful AI video
🎮 Tokyo Game Show: AI Meets Skepticism
On-the-ground member report from TGS revealed a chilly reception to generative AI.
Copyright fears and lawsuit risk kept big players cautious.
Kling, Midjourney, and Stability in particular faced pushback.
Lesson for creatives eyeing Japan: adoption will lag without cultural trust.
👤 “AI Actress” or PR Stunt?
News of an AI actress signed to an agency drew side-eye.
Some see disruption; others smell manufactured hype.
The underlying question: will audiences embrace synthetic stars, or reject them as fake?
Link: ScreenRant — Hollywood is Planning to Sign Their First AI-Generated Star
🧠 OpenAI Wants to Stop Scheming Models
A new research post outlined methods for detecting and reducing “scheming” behaviors in AI models.
A technical piece with big implications: if trust breaks down, so do creative partnerships.
Quietly noted in chat, but a reminder that alignment debates reach all corners of the industry.
Link: OpenAI- Detecting and Reducing Scheming in AI Models
🧰 Tools Spotlight: Mixboard & Koyal.ai
Two tool drops sparked curiosity this week:
Mixboard (Google Labs): a music-to-visual sandbox members called “way too much fun” for rapid prototyping — think quick moodboards and sync experiments.
Koyal.ai: new in public beta, converts audio into cinematic video. Early testers are exploring its potential for music video concepts, trailers, and immersive sound-driven edits.
Link: Google Labs — Mixboard
Link: Koyal.ai — audio-to-video beta
🌟 Community Perks & Shoutouts
A new AI VFX channel launched, giving members a dedicated space to trade workflows and comps.
Discount codes shared for Infinity Festival Hollywood (Oct 9–10).
Link: Infinity Festival
Link: Machine Cinema AI VFX channel invite
Plus, a wave of member projects dropped — noir shorts, dark comedy reels, and experimental music videos.
Links: Member Spotlights
The 27 Club- AI Trailer
Small Town Noir- Episode 1
Amuse Bouche Teaser
Doom Scroll
Tributo Iuzu Halloween
🔗 Basecamp Bonus Links
IndieWire — YouTube creators racing past Hollywood’s studio model
Real Creative “Pick of the Week”
Each week the Machine Cinema members + the Real Creative team obsess over social feeds in search of the world's best AI creative video, gaming, and music projects.
This week one project stuck out: “OG PRIME” from S.A.V., presented by Kling AI and Phantom X Productions in association with Escape AI. The 10-minute short is a gritty, character-driven cyberpunk story about a once-heroic warbot now scavenging the streets to stay alive and rediscover meaning. In addition to its smart use of AI, it’s a heartfelt narrative about moving beyond survival. You can find more from S.A.V. on their socials and YouTube channel.
Socials: YT, IG, Company IG
You can find this and over 300 AI filmmakers and their projects over at realcreative.ai which features some familiar faces from the Machine Cinema community.
Overhead in “We Love Robots”:
Here’s what bubbled up in the wider creative/tech landscape.
💔 Cheating With a Sex Robot?
A Futurism article on AI marriages/divorces turned into the week’s hottest debate: what counts as cheating in the age of robots?
Physical vs. emotional fidelity blurred as members pointed out that LLM “companions” may already count as emotional cheating.
Wild extensions included robotic surrogacy, raising kids with robot “villages,” and whether cultures collapse or evolve under this pressure.
Net: relationships may be the first domain where AI shakes our moral foundations.
Link: Futurism — ChatGPT Marriages & Divorces
Link: Book: Bowling Alone
Link: Book: Democracy in America companion read
🌀 Post-Truth, Powered by Deepfakes
Forget hypotheticals — members argued we’ve been in a post-truth world for years, but AI accelerates it.
Deepfakes collapse trust in evidence; politics and power fill the gap where truth once anchored debate.
Architecture and culture became metaphors, but the throughline was clear: when reality is synthetic, persuasion beats proof.
Link: US News — Trump/TikTok order
Link: Engadget — Judge rejects Anthropic’s $15B copyright settlement
Link: Book: The Post-Truth Era
🌏 Who Really Owns AI? China, India, or Everyone Else?
AI sovereignty became a geopolitical chess match in chat this week.
China consumes a quarter of Microsoft’s OpenAI cloud revenue and is opening doors with new STEM visas.
India is talent-rich but politically chaotic — AI events skew Bollywood more than research.
Consensus: only the US and China will achieve full-stack AI control, but smaller states (Israel, Singapore, UAE) are quietly punching above their weight.
Link: Anthropic — Economic Index (Sept 2025)
Link: OpenAI × NVIDIA — 10GW AI Factories
Link: Jonathan Bi interviews AI Expert Brendan McCord
Link: X — @sullyomarr
Link: X — @yuchenj_uw
Link: Perplexity — China’s K-Visa program
Link: Hindustan Times — Investor blasts Mumbai AI event
⛪ An AI Pope? Not So Fast
Religion took a robotic turn:
Some Protestant churches are already experimenting with AI-generated sermons.
The Pope refused authorization for an “AI Pope,” dismissing it as “an empty cold shell.”
The deeper debate: can faith survive if its leaders are synthetic? Or does authenticity itself become the last sacred boundary?
Link: Reddit — Churches playing AI-generated clips
Link: PC Gamer — Pope rejects AI Pope
⚛️ Quantum Finance Goes Boom
Quantum computing leapt from labs into Wall Street.
Physicists demoed scalable new qubit arrays.
HSBC and IBM ran the world’s first quantum-enabled trades.
Community reaction: awe, but also a sense that finance just became a high-stakes experiment.
Link: Phys.org — New qubit array
Link: HSBC — Quantum-enabled trading demo
Link: O’Donnell Co. — The Incredible Potential of the Human Brain
🔗 Robots on the Feed
Link: Digital Car Dashboard Pet
Link: Man exposes AI Recruiters
Link: Vibrating knives
GenTalks Community Call September 24, 2025
Our GenDojo Community Call is a weekly digital get together to connect on how we are all making our way through this new era for creative industries and AI among other emergent technologies. Each week we invite artists, builders, thought leaders to share their knowledge, their works in progress and their ideas on this emergent space.
If you’d like to be added to the recurring invite please DM.
Machine Cinema Linktree: https://linktr.ee/machinecinema
TL;DR
Two-part session: (1) Dreamina product walkthrough with Jenna Cao—spotlighting multi-frame video (up to ~54s seamless single take), Seedream image tools, and avatar features plus CPP access + Chroma Awards tie-ins. (2) Elizabeth Strickler (Georgia State U) on “dream machines” and five creator-economy shifts (craft→curation, IP→influence, labor→leverage, workflow→world-building, audience→ecosystem). Quick Q&A on pricing, feature status, and creator economics. Plus Pick of the Week.
📺 Watch Here!!
Segment 1 — Dreamina (Jenna Cao)
Focus: What’s live/coming, and how creators plug in.
Product pillars
AI Image (Seedream 1.0–3.0): text prompting, in-paint, upscaling, retouching—graphic & cinematic use cases kept in one workspace.
AI Video (Seedance 1.0): style range, prompt adherence; headline feature is Multi-Frame for a single-take feel up to ~54s.
AI Avatars: build/restyle characters; template library, with deeper controls rolling out.
Programs & opportunities
CPP (creator program): credits, early/beta access, global showcases (Busan this week; Paris; LA Tech Week next month).
Chroma Awards: Dreamina + CapCut sponsoring. Deadline Nov 3. Dreamina category: micro-drama; CapCut: short-form social.
Access
QR/form shared live; promise of wider availability this week; membership tiers exist but use the invite link first for free access.
Q&A hits
Multi-image refs: varies by model version; layering references is evolving—DM Jenna with UI screenshots.
54s generation time: variable (queue/load); expect longer than short clips; specifics will stabilize post-beta.
Pricing: credit-based tiers (image < video). Invite pathway gives initial free access.
Segment 2 — Elizabeth Strickler (Georgia State University, Creative Media Industries Institute)
Theme: “Dream machines” & navigating abundance.
Context
Past decade: disruption in distribution (YouTube/Netflix/TikTok).
Next decade: disruption in creation (cost → near-zero) while attention is capped.
Five shifts / tensions
Craft → Curation: technical barriers drop; taste & discernment become edge. “Lean into your weird.”
IP → Influence: showing work and building a public, authentic voice often precede formal IP plays.
Labor → Leverage: small teams + agents/automation/cloud = outsized output; vision > hours.
Workflow → World-Building: reusable assets, persistent universes; plan repurposing from day one.
Audience → Ecosystem: move fans from passive viewers to participants/collaborators.
Monetization discussion
Creator revenue remains tough: micropayments (pennies/cents) are promising but immature; live/IRL experiences and education increasingly core; explore direct-to-fan models.
Referenced Doug Shapiro’s analysis (e.g., “What if all content is marketing?”), Taylor Swift’s concert film economics, and extreme streaming payouts (e.g., billion-stream royalties still modest).
Quick Quotes
“The single-take thing is … nuts.” — Fred
“Taste is your new skill. Lean into your weird.” — Elizabeth