Accessible on most major VR headsets, on Steam for PC, and mobile device app stores, the interactive short Dynamic Film invites “Visitors” to decide if they would play god to AI
TORONTO – Monday, Sept. 28 – Filmmaking sets a new course today as Transitional Forms and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) introduce the first short “Dynamic Film,” Agence. Dynamic Film is a new medium blending artificial intelligence (AI), cinematic storytelling and interactivity to never tell the same story twice. Agence debuted earlier this month at the prestigious Venice Film Festival and is available now for purchase for VR, PC, or mobile.
From Emmy Award-winning director and Transitional Forms Founder Pietro Gagliano, Agence asks a poignant question: “Would you play god to intelligent life?” Agence is a short Dynamic Film that places the fate of artificially intelligent creatures called Agents into the hands of “Visitors” who enter the experience. In a simulated universe, the Visitor has the power to simply observe – or to directly interfere. Their actions either maintain the balance of the Agents’ peaceful existence or throw them into chaos.
Based on their learnings through the development of Agence, Transitional Forms and the NFB are planning the creation of additional AI training tools this fall, under the name Project Gilgamesh. This initiative aims to use storytelling as a framework to both develop and learn from artificial intelligence. The team will continue to refine this technology and push the boundaries of using reinforcement learning to train new characters for dynamic content to think for themselves.
“Agence is just the beginning – the modern version of a silent film that we hope kicks off the next generation of filmmaking,” said Pietro Gagliano. “We are asking the audience to consider the human responsibility that comes with creating artificially intelligent life, and we hope Agence is a culturally relevant contribution in the development of virtual beings. As the future rapidly unfolds, I believe that storytelling will play a key role in creating mutual empathy between humans and intelligent machines.”
AI Community to Contribute to Agence
Behind the scenes, the Agence team keeps new Agent Brains on a constant training regimen, the reinforcement learning process powering each character, looping millions of times, doling out positive and negative rewards along the way to make them incrementally smarter and more layered. These are also being added to the Dynamic Film via future updates to keep the experience fresh and unique with each experience. The Agence team is also inviting technically minded collaborators, engineers and enthusiasts in the AI community to use their openly available production tools to train and submit their own AI “Brains.” The team will then select the best ones to integrate via future updates to Agence.
“The NFB’s and Transitional Forms’ decision to open up the tech behind Agence for people to train their own brains is a major step forward for AI-powered filmmaking,” said NFB Creative Producer David Oppenheim. “As Transitional Forms, NFB and, eventually, other creators continue developing the concept of Dynamic Film, we hope to push the medium of film even further than recent industry experiments with ‘choose your adventure’ films – we want to let the Visitor and the AI they interact with, morph and alter the story as it happens in real time.”
Agence is available now for purchase on:
- Steam for PC and VR, Oculus Store and Viveport for $2.99
- Supported VR headsets include HTC Vive, Oculus Rift S / Rift, Windows Mixed Reality, Valve Index
- ESRB – E for Everyone
- Mobile devices via Apple App Store and Google Play for $1.99
- Apple App Store rating age 4+
- Supported Mobile Devices Include:
▪ iPhone: OS: iOS 12 | iPhone X and up
▪ Android 7.0 Nougat or greater | Samsung Galaxy 8
For more information, please visit: https://www.agence.ai/
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