How AI is changing business and video art — from ‘chaos machine’ to creative innovator
On a rainy afternoon last November at Seattle Center, I walked into a darkened studio to find a film crew crammed into a small set, shifting figures representing software developers, a ghost of a hero, and a monster representing AI slop.
Now this is differentI remember thinking to myself.
It was a stop-motion animation shot of Kiro, an AI-powered software development tool from Amazon Web Services. When I heard that this group was using AI to create video in ways that wouldn’t have been possible in the past – or would have taken more time using traditional techniques on my own – I knew I had to sit down and talk to them.
This week on the GeekWire Podcast, I’m joined by Brice Budke (president) and Zeek Earl (executive creative director), who run two Seattle studios: Shep, a video agency that works with tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft, and Packrat, a creative studio specializing in miniature worlds, handmade sets, and retro creative projects.
Here’s one of the videos Packrat made with AWS Kiro Image, which uses AI to help fill in the gaps between the original and master frames they were capturing when I visited:
You may also know Packrat’s work on the history and extensive viewing video of the release of the Seahawks’ 2025 schedule, which won a Gold Clio. They also made “Prospect,” an indie sci-fi film that premiered at SXSW in 2018, starring Pedro Pascal and Sophie Thatcher.
Brice and Zeek discuss how AI is changing their work, including what works, what doesn’t, and how they navigate the changes on both the creative and business sides of their studios.
Listen below, and read on for your key takeaways. Subscribe to GeekWire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
AI doesn’t save money. Getting usable output from AI video tools is still a numbers game. “To get one usable gun in the last piece, you might need 1,000 generations,” Zeek said, talking about the process of informing the model to create new variations. The time and expertise required to deal with such tools means that there is not always a clear cost saving over conventional manufacturing.
Taste and intuition are more important than ever. As AI handles more of the analytical and task-oriented work, the human population is shifting to opinions, observations and judgments. “Ultimately somebody has to have an idea and a taste and an idea to put it in,” Brice said. If you take that out, you just want a slot machine, a random chance generator.
Product standards create unique challenges for AI. Unlike the random AI-generated content that floods the web, product activity needs to be consistent. Kiro has a different character, and Zeek couldn’t get the AI to generate a range that felt different every frame.
The Kiro project was a success in part because it combines hand-crafted production design with AI-assisted animation, giving him creative control rather than forcing him to work close to limits. “Doing the Kiro project was the first time I felt in control of an AI,” he said.
AI automatically switches to generic. Generative AI “always pulls you into the center,” Zeek explains. “It always draws you to the derivative.” The difference in manual work comes from the accumulation of human decisions, something that AI cannot replicate.
The pace of change is a major challenge. AI video creation is moving so fast that workflows quickly become outdated, and it’s hard to keep up with the capabilities of commonly available tools. “It’s chaos,” Brice said. Every time a new project comes up, they have to reassess which tools might be right for the job, given the change.
Working with endless tools is psychologically brutal. Generative AI offers endless possibilities, meaning you’ll never be completely satisfied. “As a genius, when you’re working with an endless tool, there’s always a chance that something better might come along,” Zeek said. “At the end of the day doing AI, you can just feel physically bad because you won’t reach a level of satisfaction with your work.”
All art goes through stages of grief with AI. Zeek says he is past feeling scared or depressed about the changes. “I’m really trying to focus on what I can do to express ideas that weren’t possible before,” he said. His hope and dream: that low production costs will allow for a strange, interesting human art, no less.
The future is about ideas, not busy work. Brice sees a shift in people’s focus on generating ideas, rather than simply producing output. If AI can handle more analytical work and task-oriented work, he says, it frees up space to focus on ideas, taking advantage of your intuition and taste, areas where humans are still limited.
Subscribe to GeekWire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Sound editing and production by Curt Milton.
