A Japanese ad agency invented an AI creative director -- and ad execs preferred its ad to a human's

In 2015, ad agency McCann Japan's creative planner Shun Matsuzaka set himself a task he called the "creative genome project": he wanted to create the world's first AI creative director, capable of directing a TV commercial. And last week, Matsuzaka showed off his creation at the UK advertiser trade body ISBA's annual conference in London. The creative brief: The type of brand, the campaign goal, the target audience, and the claim the ad should make. They then assembled a database of deconstructed ads from all the winners of some of Japan's biggest award shows from the past 10 years -- mapping and tagging each of the elements of the ads to help determine what made them successful. Confectionery giant Mondelez was the first client willing to put the AI creative director to the test.