A 60-second window into the future

This deceptively simple 60-second video portrays a village where residents earn their livelihood by rearing animals and selling their products – a subject that typically wouldn’t capture the attention of most social media users, even those harbouring dreams of having their own farms.

However, the Cochin-based creative collective’s Dinomukku became an instant sensation across Kerala’s social media landscape for one remarkable twist: the AI-generated video depicts villagers rearing dinosaurs instead of conventional livestock.

The ingenious work by The Storytellers Union proved irresistible, catapulting the video to viral status with remarkable speed – their Instagram account amassed over a million views while their LinkedIn presence attracted more than 100,000 visitors within days of the video’s release.

The cofounders of the Storytellers Union – Shine Naushad, Gokul S Pillai, and Sidharth Shoban – are now being sought by all the media to talk about their creation. They say their team has been adopting new AI tools over the last few months and wanted to showcase their newly-acquired abilities. That’s when the idea of creating a video using AI tools began taking shape, but it took weeks of research to develop the plot.

“We were sitting around having tea and chatting about this with our Art Director Bibin Sebastian and our friend Sanjay Siby Thomas, who now works as the Senior Creative Lead at One Hand Clap, Mumbai,”says Shine. “During the conversation, Sanjay suggested dinosaur farming, as we had seen social media posts about fictional sales of dinosaur eggs.”

Hatching the Plot

The concept immediately resonated with the team. They recognised that AI tools were rapidly transforming content creation and wanted to secure first-mover advantage with this unique concept.

“Our aim was to complete it in three days,” says Shine, “but it took us seven days to finish as there was significant effort needed to maintain quality throughout the process.”

For most viewers, the short clip was simply an entertaining fantasy set in a scenic Kerala village, styled like a documentary from a legacy television channel or government media unit. However, the production process represents a dramatic shift in content creation.

Traditional production of a similar 60-second documentary would typically involve location scouting teams, camera units and support staff, post-production editors for video and audio and graphic designers and subtitle creators. Such a project would normally require more than a dozen people and several weeks of work – and that's without considering the complexity of creating dinosaur models as props.

AI tools are fundamentally changing this equation. The Storytellers Union team accomplished the entire production without leaving their office, creating everything on their screens using various AI applications while maintaining traditional workflows for processes like editing.

Technology and Tradition

While AI tools enhance creative capabilities, they also present challenges to the industry. For customers focused primarily on budget rather than quality, these tools offer a perfect solution to reduce expenses. That is why some early AI-generated advertisements that appeared in the local media sometimes depicted people with anatomical errors like six fingers.

The team at Storytellers Union say their goal isn’t to replace traditional production but to integrate AI with conventional methods. “Creating AI videos isn’t our ultimate aim,” says Shine. “If we can integrate live shooting with AI enhancement, we can achieve near-perfect results.”

Despite these efficiencies, he maintains their appreciation for traditional methods. “We enjoy the process of shooting with cameras. When we go through that process, we get good results. We don’t want to miss that,” Shine explains. “But since technology is evolving, we can’t do without it. We need both – that is our idea.”

Impact and Implications

The video’s success extended beyond social media metrics. The team received numerous calls from parents whose children had developed an interest in dinosaurs, and some viewers even asked where in Palakkad this fictional “dinosaur village” was located.

As expected, more dinosaur clips have started appearing on Kerala social media. And more can be anticipated. As the technology becomes more widely adopted, content financiers for movies, music, and text may realise that jobs previously requiring ten people could now be completed by just four or five.

Even before the rise of AI content creation, Kerala’s film industry had been facing significant economic challenges. The recent row between film producers about the cost of production almost brought the industry to a standstill. 

Against this backdrop of financial vulnerability, the emergence of AI content creation tools presents both opportunities and threats. As the technology becomes more widely adopted, financiers for movies, music, and text content may realise that jobs previously requiring ten people could now be completed by just four or five.

This is where some AI experts’concerns become alarming. They say that the efficiency of AI tools will increase productivity, but the financial benefits will primarily go to large companies and wealthy individuals. Meanwhile, people who lose their jobs may face economic hardship, potentially widening the gap between rich and poor.

More robots to the rescue

Last week, we talked about a robot that will harvest coconuts. This week, we have another robotics firm aiming to solve a different problem: clearing weeds. Hyderabad-based Harvested Robotics says it has developed a machine that uses artificial intelligence and laser beams to zap weeds. The firm, co-founded in 2023 by Rahul Arepaka and George Mathew, says the machine can be attached to a tractor and will promote organic cultivation by eliminating the need for chemical weed killers. Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra is among the investors who recently backed the firm with a 5 crore-rupee investment.

Kochi-based iHub Robotics says it has secured funding from an unnamed US financier to develop a humanoid production facility in Kerala. This is somewhat surprising, as few Indian firms have made headlines in a sector largely dominated by Chinese companies. However, a report in Indian Startup News states that iHub exported some semi-humanoid robots to the UAE and Saudi Arabia last year, and the new funding it received is worth 4.3 crore rupees.

New jobs in the horizon

Drone displays are an area with tremendous scope for expansion in India, where fireworks remain a widely practised tradition despite some horrific accidents. Drone displays are now gaining popularity as a much safer alternative to handling explosives. The latest country to see rapid growth in drone displays is the UAE, and unsurprisingly, Indians – especially those from Kerala– are playing a key role. The show organised for the conclusion of the Dubai World Health Expo was designed by Ajay Sreekumar and his company, Skyvertise. He told Rest of the World that many Indians are finding jobs in the region’s drone sector.

New model for weather prediction

Weather predictions are becoming more complex as weather patterns change rapidly. Researchers at the University of Cambridge say they have developed a new AI-driven method to predict weather quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively. By replacing hours-long supercomputer processing and extending accurate forecasts from five to eight days, Aardvark Weather can provide governments with a more efficient and accessible tool to anticipate natural disasters like floods and plan mitigation strategies in advance to save lives, the university says. This could be a boon for countries like India, where many weather bureaus still rely on archaic models that offer little help to those affected.

Mute ’em, Ninjas 

This is one product we rank as essential as oxygen. Researchers at the Penn State College of Engineering have developed a way for people to listen to podcasts or watch videos without blasting those around with their high volume. We didn’t grasp much of the physics in the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences– something about sound waves and technological wizardry – but we’re thrilled to know that salvation may finally be at hand. A world where we no longer have to endure the warriors of the irritation army: those who treat restaurants, buses, and trains as their stage, belting out phone conversations at operatic levels or subjecting strangers to their video playlists at full blast. Finally, a way to silence these human megaphones, without getting arrested!