Okay, I don't use Tumblr as much as Twitter, so I'm gonna summarize what happened over there last week about the short and the whole "Donnie using AI" discourse:
Back in September, there was a last-minute announcement that the new Mutant Mayhem short Chrome Alone 2: Lost in New Jersey was going to be playing at a single theater in Dallas for one week only.
This release was most likely so the short would meet the theatrical release requirement that some awards have. It's actual release will be in December, when it will play before the SpongeBob movie in theaters.
I have an unusual job where I go live on site for 4 to 5 months in the winter. It's super remote, and I basically only leave for groceries or if I have to go to the doctor. The chances of being able to see the short in December were slim, so going to see it in Dallas was basically my best chance at seeing it without having it spoiled for me when it came out with SpongeBob.
I just happened to be traveling that week, and I made the crazy decision to switch some flights so I could have a layover in Dallas to see the short. I loved it and tweeted about it immediately after seeing it:
(side note, my quick little review got retweeted by Mutant Mayhem director Jeff Rowe and the short's writer Andrew Joustra, which was super cool of them 😭)
Anyway, I think hardly anyone else actually went to see it. I think @duckdodger went to go see it, too.
There was no security or anyone there to make you sign an NDA to not talk about the short, but I did ask Andrew Joustra if it was cool to post a picture of the title that I took as the short began.
Other than that tweet, I didn't give away any crucial details about the plot or anything, because I really want people to be able to experience the short spoiler-free like I did.
Fast forward to October 8th, when a teaser for the short was released:
If you haven't watched it, Donnie does indeed ask ChatGPT what he should get Splinter for Christmas. It gives a terrible answer, Raph makes fun of him, and Donnie says "don't blame AI, it's only as good as its prompts..."
Then the tweet OP posted started to circulate. People were understandably pissed that Donnie used ChatGPT so casually. Out of the context of the rest of the short, that clip makes Donnie look like the typical obnoxious pro-AI tech bro.
I was actually walking through the airport to get on a flight to New York Comic Con when the trailer dropped, so I posted a super quick tweet:
As you can see from the totally crazy amount of likes/retweets/comments, the tweet somehow broke containment of my handful of moots lol. I regretted being so vague because I was just shooting from the hip with that first tweet, so I followed up a little later with:
Because again, I don't want to spoil the short, but it was a huge bummer to see that people were taking from the teaser the exact opposite message the short is out there to deliver. Chrome Alone 2 is a funny, clever, and passionate story about genuine creativity & authenticity vs AI slop & blatant plagiarism.
To further drive home that point, here's a followup tweet from the short's writer:
What's more, the clip shows that the conflict in the short is that someone is ripping off the turtles' likeness and profiting from it. And who is that someone?
Authentic Imitations Toy Company. Their logo is literally AI.
And if that isn't enough to prove without the rest of the short that it is in fact anti-AI, Donnie literally says one of the most obvious anti-AI things possible after seeing the commercial:
As frustrating as it was to watch people get out the pitchforks already, releasing that clip from the short with Donnie using ChatGPT was a genius marketing move by Paramount. AI is a super hot topic right now, and it generated a huge amount of discussion online.
Anyway, I really hope people don't completely write off the short, or Mutant Mayhem as a whole, because of this teaser. I promise you that by the end of the short, Donnie (and hopefully the audience) has learned a lesson 😉
