Most of us spend a huge chunk of our time in passive, one-way consumption. SceneXtras changes that. We’re tackling the engagement gap for those of us obsessed with characters and their stories.
We get what makes watching movies and TV special—the emotional bond with the characters.
Other platforms like Character AI and Replika have done some cool stuff with AI chats, but they miss the magic of tying these interactions back to the original stories.
We’re taking things further by focusing on enhancing the viewing experience. Imagine chatting with your favorite characters right while you think if a question before, during and after viewing.
Picture this:
Asking Anakin from Star Wars to rethink the dark side.
Getting dating advice from Hitch.
Solving mysteries with Sherlock Holmes.
Rap battling with Eminem from 8 Mile.
We’ve started with a Chrome extension, but we will primarily need beta testers for our new web version(mobile only). Your roast will be key in making this awesome.
@markotwain You do understand that for the LLM to be able to take these personas, it has to consume proprietary content that would be illegal for it to digest this way, correct?
You're effectively advocating for a business model based on theft of intellectual property in violation of licensing agreements that give other people who are not you exclusive access.
@drriversong I get your concern, but let me clarify. Use of celebrity likenesses by AI chatbots doesn't necessarily equate to theft of intellectual property otherwise Character AI and many others wouldnt be around because:
AI chatbots create transformative content. Not replicating proprietary content verbatim but generate new, unique responses based on general patterns learned from various inputs. This falls under fair use, a law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission.
Also, AI applications using celebrity likenesses like this serve parody purposes, which are protected under fair use too. Sure we could make a bigger deal of this but we plan to state this without messing up the UX.
AI-generated content can be considered derivative, where new creations add significant value and meaning, thus qualifying for legal protection under certain conditions. Think of it as fanfiction.
With all that said we are still planning on an profit share system should this take off in a major way. Where not just actors but writers who are often underpaid would get a part of proceeds generated from AI characters. Thanks!
If Scarlett Johansson is able to force open AI to shut down a voice that kind of resembles her but not really then this is going to be a much bigger legal issue.
@drriversong Until we have precedence in courts regarding LLMs, both of you are speculating.
You are correct about risk. But you are also not a Supreme Court judge. The Scarlett Jo situation isn’t even in court yet. It’s all just Twitter drama.
We will find out what the “rules” are in the next few years as precedence is built.
@pastorvjoshua Touchè. But unlike the commenter i was citing actual law current companies in this field use to protect themselves. Sure we’re in new territory and things might change but my intuition is that this is easily solved with a profit sharing system of sorts cause often the issue is not that AI was used but the fact ppl didnt get their fair share.
You can even choose ScarJo as voice. The company is worth 1B, raised millions, im sure their investors did their due diligence on whether they are supporting a business model based on theft of intellectual property.
@markotwain I'll roast your video. The editing gets in the way of me seeing your actual product. It keeps jumping in and out. It's like trying to read an article on a bouncing schoolbus with no seat belt on. Settle that shit down. Also, the first video spends 30 seconds setting the already self-evident premise: Have you ever felt lost in a movie and wished someone could explain WTF is going on? Now you can.
@nellie1953 Thanks for your question! I think the first demo video illustrates the problem this is solving well. Viewers are increasingly confused by complex plots. Even showrunners are pressured to simplify content, as they compete for attention against social media on viewers' phones during streaming. We think the added interaction layer before, during and after viewing can help refocus. And for more niche audiences in particular that are deeply connected to characters and want to continue engaging beyond the credits, this can extend the lifecycle of their fav movies. Some of this audience is already using Character.ai (15mil daily visitors) for which we would be the dedicated movie alternative as their chatbots aren't as tied to the original stories.
We initially chose chrome extension as a medium bc we found a novel way to auto detect scenes in browsers. But truth is we've learned from quite alot of people saying they stream on their TVs more and would prefer this as web version or app accessible via mobile. So we are def taking that on board and have a private beta in development.
@markotwain Cool but one more thing. Instead of downloading a new ai service or even paying for one, couldn’t you just add “from the perspective of the protagonist in tenet:” to the front of your prompt in chat gpt?
