IBM Watson – the supercomputer with a penchant for Big Data, cooking and winning quiz shows – has made its directing debut. In further evidence that one day, robots will take all of our jobs, 20th Century Fox gave Watson the task of coming up with a trailer for upcoming sci-fi thriller Morgan.
That wasn’t a random choice of film – or at least if it was, it was a remarkable coincidence. Morgan is a film about a humanoid AI in a majority flesh-and-blood world, so why not have an AI put the trailer together?
Watson’s crash course in cinema school involved absorbing 100 horror-film trailers divided into different scenes. By performing visual, aural and composition analysis on the clips, Watson became an armchair expert in what audiences find scary, learning from the best.
Then the practical exam: Watson consumed all 90 minutes of Morgan, hunting for suitably juicy moments for a trailer. The supercomputer picked out six minutes of footage spread over ten scenes, which a human then assembled into a coherent short.
So how was it? Can you spot any subtle pro-AI propaganda in there? Is it a robotic version of the Game of Thrones supercut that makes Joffrey out to be the goodie all along? Check out the finished trailer below and judge for yourself.
While this may seem like an unnecessarily complicated way to promote your film, it’s worth noting that with Watson’s help, it took just 24 hours to put together. Compare that to the 10-30 days it usually takes, and it looks like Watson might have another career path to consider, should the whole curing cancer thing not pan out.
Images: 20th Century Fox
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