Fifty years ago, a young woman named Hannah pleasured herself in a erotic magazine photo spread. This week, thanks to generative AI, she did it again – this time with a voiceover.
The first volume of “Sh(AI)ved” — a collection of AI-generated short films drawn from erotic magazine photo spreads published 50 years ago — made its debut on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival, and is now streaming on Cultpix.
Thomas Meier, of the Norwegian firm Multiformat, deployed the latest generative AI tools to convert still images from 1976 magazine photo spreads into fully animated video, complete with color, synchronized sound, dialogue and voiceover.
Variety took a deep dive into the films to see what the fuss is all about.
The first short in the collection, the titular “Sh(AI)ved,” begins with the usual montage of naked women pleasuring themselves that mid-70s adult films normally commenced with. It’s all set to a soundtrack known variously as “wah-wah music” or “porn funk” – the latter referring to the strutting, bass-heavy funk grooves that became synonymous with the era. The genre is also sometimes called “sexploitation music” or, more colloquially, “bow-chicka-wow-wow,” heavy on electric guitar riffs.
