@digitalpersons
AI video technology is evolving so quickly that even for creative professionals, there is a lot to experiment with. Daryl Anselmo, a creative director turned digital artist, has been experimenting with the technology since its early days, posting an AI-generated video every day since 2021. He tells me that uses a wide range of tools, including Kling, Luma, and Midjourney, and is constantly iterating. To him, testing the boundaries of these AI tools is sometimes itself the reward. “I would like to think there are impossible things that you could not do before that are still yet to be discovered. That is exciting to me,” he says.
Anselmo has collected his daily creations over the past four years into an art project, titled AI Slop, that has been exhibited in multiple galleries, including the Grand Palais Immersif in Paris. There’s obvious attention to mood and composition. Some clips feel like something closer to an art-house vignette than a throwaway meme. Over time, Anselmo’s project has taken a darker turn as his subjects shift from landscapes and interior design toward more of the body horror that drew Garibay in.
His breakout piece, feel the agi, shows a hyperrealistic bot peeling open its own skull. Another video he shared recently features a midnight diner populated by anthropomorphized Tater Tots, titled Tot and Bothered; with its vintage palette and slow, mystical soundtrack, the piece feels like a late-night fever dream.
One further benefit of these AI systems is that they make it easier for creators to build recurring spaces and casts of characters that function like informal franchises. Lim, for instance, is the creator of a popular AI video account called Niceaunties, inspired by the “auntie culture” in Singapore, where she’s from.
“The word ‘aunties’ often has a slightly negative connotation in Singaporean culture. They are portrayed as old-fashioned, naggy, and lacking boundaries. But they are also so resourceful, funny, and at ease with themselves,” she says. “I want to create a world where it’s different for them.”
Her cheeky, playful videos show elderly Asian women merging with fruits, other objects, and architecture, or just living their best lives in a fantasy world. A viral video called Auntlantis, which has racked up 13.5 million views on Instagram, imagines silver-haired aunties as industrial mermaids working in an underwater trash-processing plant.
There’s also Granny Spills, an AI video account that features a glamorous, sassy old lady spitting hot takes and life advice to a street interviewer. It gained 1.8 million Instagram followers within three months of launch, posting new videos almost every day. Although the granny’s face looks slightly different in every video, the pink color scheme and her outfit stay mostly consistent. Creators Eric Suerez and Adam Vaserstein tell me that their entire workflow is powered by AI, from writing the script to constructing the scenes. Their role, as a result, becomes close to creative directing.
@grannyspills
These projects often spin off merch, miniseries, and branded universes. The creators of Granny Spills, for example, have expanded their network, creating a Black granny as well as an Asian granny to cater to different audiences. The grannies now appear in crossover videos, as if they share the same fictional universe, pushing traffic between channels.