"A New Medium", Billions in Funding, Millions of Videos, One Big Problem
Four clear supply-side signals from AI platforms, one massive demand-side blind spot that could make or break generative AI
[Author’s Note: I am testing new copy for the About section and the tagline over the next few months. You are seeing this focus on the fundamental market misalignment between IP owners and generative AI at a time when both need each other for their respective business models to survive.
I’d welcome your thoughts on how this aligns with the challenges you are seeing in your industry.]
Over the weekend, Cristóbal Valenzuela—cofounder and CEO of the artificial intelligence (AI) video startup platform Runway—posted a short essay on X arguing that AI is “an entirely new” medium of “perception and expression.
In April, I outlined an earlier version of this argument from Showrunner founder Edward Saatchi (and he offered an updated version of it on X/Twitter alongside Valenzuela’s post). This talk of “a new medium” reads like heady stuff, and it is.
The possibilities seem endless. New platforms and language learning models constantly emerge. The future is chaos.
But, if you know where to look, there are a variety of concrete signals emerging from the supply side.
