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Please join Liminal Labs, our new creative studio — and think tank — exploring use of AI for film, video, and storytelling

Hi Folks,

We had a fantastic journey with Ari Kuschnir, Schuyler Brown, and Jordan Albert over our six week seminar, “Mastering the Alchemy of AI Storytelling”, which concluded recently. We intend to continue our journey of creative exploration via weekly live online meetups, starting next Sunday, March 8, 1 - 3 pm EST. It costs $200 to join for a month ($150 for paid subscribers). You don’t need to have previous knowledge of the tools, as long as you are willing to put in some time to learn them. Sign up here:

You can also purchase the recordings of the course we just finished and review those as a way to get up to speed. We’ve got a special offer for that package, for those who sign up before next Friday:

I thought I would briefly explain my own thinking about the value of exploring AI video as a creative tool. I understand the negative feelings that many people have about AI. Actually I explored my ideas and feelings about this topic in my first AI video, which you can watch here (please like and subscribe also, if you can):

Hundreds of millions if not billions of people are now using AI, mostly creating a deluge of AI slop. Whether or not a small contingent of creatives seek to use AI for better purposes is not going to impact AI’s overall “ecological footprint” significantly. We find ourselves in a hyper-competitive environment when it comes to media and messaging. You might have the most amazing idea or perspective, but if you can’t get your ideas out into the world in a powerful way, nobody will find it. In theory, AI gives us new tools to create in inspiring and spectacular ways.

Also, working with AI as a medium for video or art has its own challenges. I found it to be much more of an artisanal and iterative process than I had presumed. This is also a fascinating time to engage with this medium as the tools are evolving rapidly—month by month, even week by week. As I found, AI makes it easy to do things that were once impossible, but it also makes it almost impossible to do many basic and simple things. You can create Hollywood-level special effects of a space race or a planet exploding, but you can barely make consistent characters speak to each other convincingly. Ari’s recent video explores this conundrum:

Part of working with AI as an artistic medium is, I think, learning how to work with the idiosyncratic-seeming “personalities” possessed by these different AI systems.

AI is not going away anytime soon, if ever. By engaging with AI as a creative collaborator now, we can humanize it, using it to produce protopian visions of a better world, new kinds of artistic expression, or evocations of philosophical ideas, moving away from the proliferation of Hollywood clichés and copycat products that are flooding the Net these days. Here is an example of one young artist’s exploration of this new medium that I liked a lot:

I hope those of you who are interested in exploring this area in more depth will join our first Liminal Media Lab. Feel free to email us with questions about it at hello@liminal.news .

Here is a description of the offering:

Liminal Media Labs - Overview

An ongoing creative studio — and think tank — for AI-native and hybrid storytelling.

This is not a casual community or a passive subscription space.

It’s a working studio.

In its initial phase, Labs will be moderated and hosted by Jordan Byrne and Daniel Pinchbeck, with occasional special guests joining for focused conversations and explorations.

We will begin with:

One live 2-hour video conference each week on Sundays from 1–3pm EST, starting March 8.

These weekly sessions will serve as the anchor of the studio — a focused space for:

– Technical troubleshooting and craft refinement
– Story and critique conversations
– Mentorship and creative guidance
– Think tank discussions around socially transformative AI art and hybrid filmmaking techniques.
– Real accountability to complete meaningful work

In addition to the weekly video conference, Labs will include ongoing interaction between members — and with Jordan and Daniel — on the discussion forum on the Liminal website, as well as a smaller real-time group channel.

This will allow for:

– Sharing works in progress
– Asking technical questions between sessions
– Creative feedback and collaboration
– Resource exchange
– Continued dialogue around ethics, distribution, and evolving tools

The weekly video conference will be the structured core.

The discussion space will be the connective tissue between meetings — keeping momentum alive throughout the week.

But Labs is not only about improving prompt craft.

We’re also entering a larger cultural moment.

We can’t put the generative AI genie back in the bottle.

But we can shape how it’s used.

Inside Labs, we’ll explore:

– Business models that support rather than displace creative artists and technicians
– Ways to counteract the flood of low-quality AI slop
– How to ethically and creatively integrate AI with traditional filmmaking
– Experimental distribution strategies for projects emerging from the studio

Rather than positioning AI as a replacement for human craft, we’ll examine hybrid approaches — where AI expands cinematic language while preserving the role of actors, editors, cinematographers, and creative collaborators.

We’ll also explore distribution pathways for select Labs projects — including potential release through Liminal channels and other platforms — and experiment together with how this work can meaningfully reach audiences.

This will not be a rigid, over-designed program from day one. We’ll develop and evolve Labs together!