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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Entertainment
Kelly Burke

Into the spider’s lair: how an Australian film-maker made an impossible documentary with AI

A giant tarantula looms over a tiny frog
A giant tarantula protects a tiny frog in a scene from the short AI documentary Guardians of the Burrow Illustration: Jodie Heenan/YouTube

Scene: a dimly lit underground burrow. A giant Amazonian tarantula and a tiny dotted humming frog share the space, an unlikely duo captured in extraordinary detail.

Except, they haven’t been. Guardians of the Burrow, a short “wildlife documentary” by the Australian digital content designer Jodie Heenan, is entirely AI generated. At the weekend it won a prize in the Omni international AI film festival, adjudicated by a panel led by The Crow and Dark City director – and AI advocate – Alex Proyas.

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