AI Created A Star Wars Movie Trailer & It's Scary How Well It Works

AI could never be used to fully replace human artists with actual passion and creativity to create new films. Therefore, many AI "artists" are content with remixing previously established intellectual property into new mediums, such as using AI to recreate "Star Wars" as a '90s anime. Others get a bit more bold, such as YouTuber Curious Refuge, whose original AI "Star Wars" trailer has gone viral with over 660,000 views as of this writing. 

The trailer is less than a minute long, and there's not much of a story to make out. The Empire is still in power, so it must occur at some point during the original trilogy. A man, perhaps a Jedi, asks an alien merchant for an artifact, and the alien requires some convincing to give it up. Of course, there needs to be some clear connection to the real "Star Wars" movies, and the trailer ends with a stormtrooper insisting that his comrade can inform Darth Vader of their shortcoming.

There have been other attempts to make such videos before. A Wes Anderson-inspired AI "Star Wars" trailer took off into hyperspace with its pastel colors and commitment to symmetry. But this one is done scarily well for the threat it represents to real artists. It focuses on a new story and new characters, so even if a full-length AI "Star Wars" movie is still a ways away, it's a safe bet folks only interested in profit will want to try to incorporate this technology into real art sooner rather than later.

The AI "Star Wars" trailer has many of the pitfalls that plague most AI creations, such as inconsistent continuity. The two stormtroopers featured throughout much of the trailer change armor pretty frequently, sporting orange chest plates at one point only to be replaced by white ones later. Such details give the trailer an almost dream-like quality, which many YouTube commenters have pointed out, such as @Ethan-0000: "This is like the most vivid dream I've ever had. Semi coherent, but minor details still shift and alter themselves."

The trailer even sort of follows dream logic, where there's a vague throughline but nothing really makes sense. A significant portion of the 53-second runtime is spent on checking out other alien merchants and the weird things they're selling. It takes a while to even get to the exchange of the artifact, with its value continuing to be a mystery. If there's anything this AI trailer shows, it's that the technology is improving. Curious Refuge even discusses the various ways AI was implemented in this video, including how "AI invented an alien language in about 10 seconds. We would feed it lines, and it would output the language with verb conjugations, tense, etc."

While it's rough around the edges, many other comments point to what this could mean for the future if AI continues advancing. YouTuber @PlatanosConAqua writes, "I can't even imagine what AI will be able to do in five years from now. This is just amazing." Even with improvements in AI, nothing can ever replace human artists, and with exciting new "Star Wars" projects coming up, such as the announced "The Mandalorian & Grogu" movie, fans have plenty to look forward to.