An A.I.-Generated Film Depicts Human Loneliness, in "Thank You for Not Answering"

In the first thirty seconds of the director and artist Paul Trillo's short film "Thank You for Not Answering," a woman gazes out the window of a subway car that appears to have sunk underwater. A man appears in the window swimming toward the car, his body materializing from the darkness and swirling water. It's a frightening, claustrophobic, violent scene--one that could have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars of props and special effects to shoot, but Trillo generated it in a matter of minutes using an experimental tool kit made by an artificial-intelligence company called Runway. The figures in the film appear real, played by humans who may actually be underwater. But another glance reveals the uncanniness in their blank eyes, distended limbs, mushy features.