Seth MacFarlane, one of the writers of Ted, which premiered its second season on March 5, opened up about the use of AI. For context, he claimed that he used the technology to turn himself into Bill Clinton on the show. Speaking to Variety on March 6, he said:
“It was an interesting experiment because we tried makeup, prosthetics. We tried traditional CGI. Everything looked terrifying. And finally, we were just like, well, let’s try AI, see what happens. It’s a great example of AI being used as a tool to amplify the script. When we screen this episode, we don’t want people looking at it going, ‘Boy, that’s a weird effect. Somehow, they got a weird CGI Bill Clinton effect.’ We don’t want then thinking that.”
Seth MacFarlane went on to say:
“We want them focusing on the jokes. So, it’s a really interesting example of how in the future AI can be used as a tool without trampling on any of the traditional art that we do. And I think there is a balance.”
He opined that this is how things would run, at least for the coming future. Looking back, he said he missed physical models, and now CGI is used instead, which he feels is more convenient. He considered AI the right tool for the right job. Seth MacFarlane also said:
“Sinatra used an RCA ribbon mic for years, and then suddenly the Neumann U47 came along. That’s what he used because it was a better tool for what he needed in the moment.”
More about Seth MacFarlane’s take on using AI in Ted
On March 7, Seth MacFarlane spoke to Ryan Schwartz on TVLine and discussed Bill Clinton’s scene on Ted. Seth said that impersonating Presidents is a tool in every comedian’s toolbox. Speaking about Clinton’s scene on Ted, he said:
“This one was interesting because it’s live action and so it comes with a lot more challenges. We tried it a number of ways. We tried makeup, you know, the prosthetic route. We experimented with some tests with that. We tried traditional CGI and everything just looked terrifying.”
He reiterated his thoughts about AI, saying:
“And it’s a great example of AI as a tool used by the writer and by the director to achieve a scene that you could not achieve otherwise.”
Seth MacFarlane explained that they didn’t want viewers to notice the visual effects. Instead, they wanted people to simply believe they were seeing Bill Clinton. He said the project showed how AI could work together with traditional creative media. He also mentioned that they probably couldn’t have done it in the first season because the technology wasn’t advanced enough at that time.
Elsewhere during the conversation, he said that the animated series did not burn a pocket hole compared to the live-action one. Because of this, Seth MacFarlane said that they were motivated to do the animated series.
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Edited by Anuj Basak