Darren Aronofsky’s AI series 'On This Day… 1776' draws criticism for 'slop' visuals

Darren Aronofsky, working with Google DeepMind and production house Primordial Soup, has released On This Day… 1776, an episodic YouTube series of AI-made shorts that dramatize moments leading up to the American Revolution. The first episode is dated January 1, showing George Washington raising a Continental Union Flag in Somerville, Massachusetts; the second is dated January 10, with Benjamin Franklin urging Thomas Paine to write what would become Common Sense.

The fact-based vignettes use SAG voice actors alongside AI-generated visuals and a “combination of traditional filmmaking tools and emerging AI capabilities,” with each new episode slated to drop on the 250th anniversary of the events they depict. A trailer is available for those who want a preview of the series.

Critical reaction in the piece characterizes the shorts as failing to overcome familiar generative-AI flaws: faces that look like they’re melting, nonsensical background details, and lip-sync that doesn’t match the voices. The overall effect is compared to a History Channel promo or an educational reenactment rather than a polished Aronofsky film.

The critique also points to subtler problems: voices that don’t modulate naturally, sluggish camera moves, and manic editing that makes the visuals feel anxiously rushed.

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