Movies Are Dominated More Than Ever Before by Franchises

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

The studios essentially know that putting your money behind the next installment of a franchise that the viewers are familiar with is a much, much better bet than coming up with a new idea. The top the top movies are absolutely dominated more than ever before by franchises, in particular, of course, by Marvel. I just think it's ridiculous to argue that the Avengers movie has that depth of understanding of humanity and that it's communing with us in quite the same way.

When OpenAI launched its conversational chatbot this past November, author Ian Leslie was struck by the humanness of the computer's dialogue. Then he realized that he had it exactly backward: In an age that favors the formulaic and generic to the ambiguous, complex, and unexpected, it's no wonder that computers can sound eerily lifelike. Leslie tells EconTalk host Russ Roberts that we should worry less about the lifelike nature of AI and worry more that human beings are being more robotic and predictable. Leslie bolsters his argument with evidence from music and movies. The conversation includes a discussion of the role of education in wearing down the mind's rougher, but more interesting and more authentic, edges as well as how we might strive to be more human in the age of AI.