ALBAWABA – Start, a Russian streaming service, has released the country's first comedy series with characters created entirely by AI. This is a big step forward in the merging of technology and entertainment.
"Feofan" was the first show to air during the fourth "New Season" festival for streaming platforms, which took place from September 15 to 20 at the Rosa Khutor resort in Sochi. It started streaming on Start on September 17 and is aimed at people 18 and older.
Each episode is less than ten minutes long and tells a story that makes fun of modern culture, from pop stars to digital lifestyles. Feofan, the main character, is a young man from St. Petersburg who leaves the modern world behind to start a community based on old ways of life. In this community, herbal medicine replaces hospitals, farming and hunting replace supermarkets, and stories by the fire replace the internet.
AI Meets Human Creativity Director Ilya Plotnikov said that all of the characters were made with neural networks, except for the cat Matvey, who was made to look more real as the main character's enemy. He said that the sketch-style format was chosen to show off the show's funny and experimental tone.
Mikhail Tkachenko, who is in charge of production at Start Studios, said that AI helped with coming up with ideas, writing scripts, and speeding up production. However, he stressed that the human team was still in charge of the creative direction and the funny story.
People are calling the project a first in Russia because AI is being used more and more in the media and there are still debates about how technology should affect art.
