Amazon Supports AI Startup Fable, Launching User-Generated Animation Platform Similar to Netflix
Fable, a startup backed by Amazon's Alexa Fund, has launched an innovative AI-powered streaming platform called Showrunner. The platform aims to revolutionise the entertainment industry by allowing users to create original animated content using AI, and build upon existing intellectual properties by adding scenes or inserting themselves as characters [1][2][3].
The brainchild of Edward Saatchi and the late Emmy-winning director Pete Billington, Fable focuses on generative storytelling, blending AI, VR, and narrative craft [4]. Showrunner is designed to be a two-way entertainment medium where audiences can actively generate new episodes and narratives by typing prompts, effectively co-creating within official storyworlds [1][2].
Saatchi envisions Showrunner as a step towards co-creative media, but distinguishes it from superficial prompt-based output. He sees it as a new artistic medium, capable of producing voiced, animated episodes with custom characters [5]. Examples include Exit Valley, a Family Guy-style satire of Silicon Valley figures, and Ikeworld, a surreal romantic comedy set in IKEA [6].
The platform's initial focus is on animated content to leverage lower computational requirements, and it has already demonstrated AI-generated episodes based on well-known properties like “South Park” [3]. With Amazon's backing via the Alexa Fund, Fable intends to scale Showrunner, offering paid subscriptions granting credits for creating content [3].
However, users will be able to continue viewing content for free. It's the creators who will be charged $10-$20 monthly for credits to generate hundreds of scenes [7]. This approach includes revenue sharing for creators when others build upon their stories, creating an ecosystem that benefits both original IP holders and new creators [1][3].
Fable is in talks with studios to build purpose-trained models around official storyworlds, such as a Star Wars model where users pay to create content with a revshare to Disney [8]. Licensing intellectual property remains a significant challenge in generative entertainment, especially for studios concerned about handing narrative control to users [9].
The closed alpha of Showrunner drew 10,000 users, and the waitlist has since surpassed 100,000 [2]. Users can export and share videos on platforms like YouTube [6]. AI video tools have traditionally been understood as production shortcuts, but Saatchi views Showrunner as a new artistic medium [5].
Saatchi expresses uncertainty about whether audiences want to participate in storytelling through AI, as he shared in an interview with Variety [10]. He suggests the solution may be building purpose-trained models that reflect the care and coherence of original works.
Investment in Fable comes from Amazon's Alexa Fund, specifically for voice innovation, artificial intelligence, hardware, and entertainment [11]. The investment was in the company, not a specific product, according to an Amazon representative [11].
As Fable continues to develop and refine Showrunner, it promises to transform traditional passive viewing into an interactive creative experience, blurring the lines between audience and creator.
- In the realm of technology, Fable is exploring new ground by allowing users to create and co-create animated content with AI, such as Exit Valley, a satire of Silicon Valley figures, using their innovative platform, Showrunner.
- Beyond animations, Fable envisions Showrunner as a stepping stone towards co-creative media, also incorporating artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and narrative craft, similar to the surreal romantic comedy, Ikeworld, set in IKEA.
- AI-powered platforms like Showrunner could revolutionise the entertainment industry, not just by offering paid subscriptions for content creation, but also by creating an ecosystem where original IP holders and new creators share revenue, as in the case of the Star Wars model under development.
