[Hollywood screenwriters and actors are on strike over the possible use of AI in television and film production. The creators of such strikes are not happy with the announcement of an AI model that is supposed to do the "writing, animation, directing, voice acting, and editing" of entire TV shows. Proof of concept is the fake episode of "South Park."

The episode itself was posted on Twitter by Fable Studios, accompanied by a white paper on "Generative TV & Showrunner Agents." The episode itself is 11 minutes long and provides a brief introduction to a tool (called SHOW-1) for using AI to generate stories. Scripts and visuals are built from a large-scale language model (LLM) and a diffusion tool, but users choose characters and locations and enter prompts for the AI to work with.

In a very meta plot, Cartman and Butters attempt to launch their own deep-fake streaming service in the midst of an actors' strike. Indeed, it is a very South Park story, and like Cartman's antics on the actual show, things do not go so well for him. Thankfully for the writers, the plot is basic, easy to deduce, and not very funny.

However, assuming things are working as Fable claims, the technology looks quite impressive. Nevertheless, there are many problems in terms of quality. Occasionally characters float in the air, many of the character models look off, and many of the voices sound the same.

"South Park" has a very basic animation style that might fit this proof of concept.

Apparently, the studio's goal is to create "living" AIs, not chatbots that exist only when summoned. This way, we can watch the lives of the AIs unfold on TV - which can be compared to reality TV or "The Truman Show."

Fable Studios has stated on both Twitter and TechCrunch that it does not intend to let its protected IP make its own episodes. However, while the company has high hopes for the use of AI in entertainment, it acknowledges the need for strong protections that prevent producers from using AI tools without the artist's permission.

However, one has to say that the timing of the release of this study and the possibility of producing a TV show without a cast and crew is very odd; it feels contrary to the very reason why WGA and SAG-AFTRA are on the picket line, which is to provide a way to create a TV show without a cast and crew.

I am not alone in thinking this way. The reaction on social media to this news has been relentless.

"If you watch this disastrous video, the first thing the characters in ai's South Park will say is that it sucks that the strike is going to delay their favorite show. These ai Bros have no ethics at all and it's baffling," wrote Twitter user @loogie_9.

Another Twitter user, @RobThez, wrote, "They seem to be using South Park because it's easy to copy the basic animation style, but the layout sucks. And the writing falls into the usual AI pitfalls. Heavy repetition, inconsistent narrative, not overly mean-spirited (lol), no theme or argument.

Also, some of the opinions are even more blatant.

The SHOW-1 development team hopes to launch the product later this year as "The Simulation," which could be applied to television programming and film production. At this stage, however, it is unclear how such a tool will ultimately be implemented in the technology industry, especially with the ongoing strike.

Hopefully, if they are introduced, the result will be a little better than this fake episode of "South Park" and be fair to the creators themselves.