AI Television by Showrunner: Create Your Own Reality Simulation

This encapsulates the experience between viewers and the newly launched streaming service Showrunner, initiated in late May 2024 by The Simulation by Fable (previously known as Fable), based in San Francisco.

“Generating TV shows at home should be as simple as browsing Netflix. The Netflix of AI isn't about passive entertainment: it's two-way: Make and Watch. Who will make the best episodes of shows? A fan with no access to Hollywood or the creator of the show? Let's find out!” tweeted The Simulation.

The team at the startup includes Primetime Emmy Award winners from Pixar Animation Studios and Oculus VR. The concept for Showrunner is set within Sim Francisco—a virtual urban community modeled after San Francisco, populated by approximately 800,000 digital beings, created with the Fable SHOW-1 AI model. Committed to “redefine the boundaries of life and AI,” the team has been developing this vibrant digital space since 2016.

Sim Francisco merges fictional characters with real people who have introduced their digital avatars into the simulation. While it might seem surreal, The Simulation asserts that Sim Francisco is beginning to thrive on its own: spontaneous interactions and relationships are forming among virtual characters. 

The project envisions a day when this virtual city will be fully populated by avatars of real individuals, allowing participants to seamlessly transport themselves into the simulation in real-time using a specialized wearable device. 

Our mission, as audacious as it is intriguing, is to birth a new kind of life: the world's first genuinely intelligent AI virtual beings. Each one, a mirror of the human psyche, navigating the tumultuous seas of emotions and experiences in a digital cosmos of our creation,

The Simulation elaborates.

Showrunner fundamentally aims to infuse life into a vast reality simulation. “Just dumping 800,000 agents with a short description and just get them to talk to each other – that would end up being really boring. You need to have a storyteller’s touch to create the 1000s of potential stories and characters that make up a city,” explains Edward Saatchi, CEO of the project.

Currently, the platform offers users the opportunity to unleash their creativity by developing their own episodes across a selection of series. 

Shows Available for Development on Showrunner Source: Project's Website

To generate an episode up to 20 minutes in length, a simple 10-15 word prompt suffices. The project's team has observed that users tend to construct scenes progressively rather than crafting an entire film at once. Yet, the final output is on par with traditional cinema, featuring plot progression, emotionally charged dialogues, voice-overs, varied camera angles, and all the signs of professional film editing. 

As of now, Fable SHOW-1 cannot yet produce a show with the complexity of “Breaking Bad” or “Game of Thrones,” which are made up of numerous episodes. Showrunner is currently focused solely on shorter formats where characters are “reset” with each new episode. Nevertheless, the team is diligently working to enable characters within the simulations to “remember” previous episodes, thereby allowing their relationships and the overarching plot to evolve logically throughout a series.

In addition to fostering creativity and entertainment, users of The Simulation also have the possibility to monetize their creations. For instance, their work could be featured in a paid subscription on Amazon Prime or listed on IMDb (Internet Movie Database), potentially generating income if they achieve commercial success. 

Fable SHOW-1 has successfully passed its “field tests,” having produced nine episodes of South Park AI that, according to the project team, not only attracted 8 million views but also prompted partnership offers from major networks like Fox, Netflix, Paramount, and Sony.

Finish a show that you enjoy and make new episodes, and even put yourself and your friends in episodes – fighting aliens, in your favorite sitcom and solving crimes,

encourages Edward Saatchi.