Episode 111 · Weekly show · 2h 2m

It's Getting Harder to Tell What's Real

3 March 2026 · Chris Branch (Host), Andrew Davis (Co-host)

The short version

Episode 111 was AI LIVE's first show in its new Tuesday slot, with producer Paul Parsons directing from the back end for the first time, and the start of a pivot towards advertising, because that's where the money in AI is. The news came thick and fast: Google bought Producer AI, Nano Banana 2 landed, Runway launched its Character Renderer app and Curious Refuge showed Seedance 2.0 swapping objects inside existing video. Then the ads: a real Adidas spot with Samuel L. Jackson, Eric Jung's Olympic spec ad, AI Candy's hybrid Orange and Pizza Hut work for real clients, LTX Studio's made-up Nexus brand and Paul Trillo's Aston Martin F1 film. One question kept coming back: what here is real? There was no live vote.

Key takeaways

01
Advertising is where the money in AI is. Chris pivoted the show towards real ads, AI ads and spec ads, because short films and music videos rarely get funded, while brands of every size around the world are now trying AI.
02
Editing beats regenerating. Seedance 2.0 can now change an eye, the weather or a whole animal inside existing footage and leave the rest of the shot alone, which turns AI video from a slot machine into something you can fine-tune.
03
Hybrid is the commercial sweet spot. AI Candy's Orange ad paired real footage of a boy with an AI lobster, and both hosts think hybrid work will avoid the backlash fully synthetic ads still face, with AI special effects filling a gap that used to cost hundreds of thousands.
04
Brands get judged on intent, not technology. A $10 Seedance 2.0 truck ad looked like a real Ford spot, but the hosts warned that replacing a real small business owner with an AI character would come off terribly, where a hybrid shoot would not.
05
Viral spec work wins real clients. Like The Dor Brothers, AI Candy puts out attention-grabbing pieces that turn into conversations with brands like Orange and Pizza Hut, and Chris noted that big agencies rarely treat themselves as a client.
06
Commercially safe AI needs custom pipelines. Paul Trillo's Aston Martin F1 film combined miniatures, 3D tracking, traditional VFX and a custom LoRA on Marey, a model trained only on licensed data, so every curve and logo stayed exact.

Everything we reviewed

14 pieces, in show order. Tap any one to watch the creator's original post.

01 · breaking news · ▶ on the show at 6:22

Nano Banana 2 examples

By Google

Nano Banana 2 arrived alongside a wider expansion of Google Flow, and we looked through a set of examples on mute: much better text, infographics and highly detailed images. Andrew admitted he had started to prefer ChatGPT's images to Nano Banana's, and Chris made the case that as the models catch up with each other, the choice comes down to where they're bolted on. For the Seedily team right now, that means free 2K Nano Banana images through Freepik rather than Gemini itself.

Nano Banana 2

Original post →

02 · breaking news · ▶ on the show at 20:31

Runway Character Renderer

By Runway

Runway's Character Renderer app turns a simple sketch into a consistent character, with a workflow view for turnarounds, notes and conversations, then plugs into your favourite video model. Andrew likes how Runway quietly sticks to its plan, and Chris pointed out it is built for film studios and experts rather than social gimmicks. The bigger story was the node-based workspace behind it, which includes outside models such as Veo 3: every platform is accepting everyone else's tools now, and refusing to would leave you behind.

“They're just quietly getting on with it in the background. It doesn't feel like they're panicking.”Andrew Davis · ▶ 21:45

Runway

Original post →

Original link coming soon

03 · breaking news · ▶ on the show at 27:27

Canva acquires MangoAI and Cavalry

By Canva

Canva has acquired MangoAI and Cavalry, and the launch reel, cut to a strong beat, points to professional-grade motion design arriving in its creative suite. Chris paused on a timeline-style workstation: after years of simple chatbot interfaces, AI tools are growing back into full software suites, just as ElevenLabs and Suno are building audio workstations. Mary asked in the chat whether creator tools will cannibalise each other, and Chris said it's already happening, from Runway's motion brush years ago to Seedance's omni reference now.

“Always helps when you've got a really good beat to edit it to, doesn't it?”Chris Branch · ▶ 28:13

04 · breaking news · ▶ on the show at 34:53

Seedance 2.0 Video Inpainting Examples

By Curious Refuge

Curious Refuge curated and made this reel of Seedance 2.0 modifying existing video from a reference clip and a text prompt: an eye turned snake-like, clouds removed with the light on a hat changing to match, a cow swapped for a bear, a UFO crash reflected in water, asteroids turned into meatballs and a dragon bursting from the clouds. Chris loved that the rest of each shot stays the same instead of regenerating from scratch. Curious Refuge is now part of Promise Studios. Seedance 2.0 wasn't publicly available yet.

“Instead, now we can use these generations less like a slot machine and be much more granular and fine-tuning with editing them.”Chris Branch · ▶ 43:54

Seedance 2.0

Original post →

05 · ▶ on the show at 45:42

Adidas Superstar Campaign

By Adidas, Johannes Leonardo

Not AI at all, and that was the point. Chris is now mixing real ads, AI ads and spec ads into every show, so creators starting out with spec work can see what the wider advertising industry is doing. Adidas Originals' Superstar campaign puts the real Samuel L. Jackson on the trail of his missing Superstars. Chris loved the shooting and that last line, and couldn't think of anyone better for the range. His one warning: don't put an AI Samuel L. Jackson in your spec ad.

Audience verdictNot put to the vote

Original post →

06 · ▶ on the show at 52:18

Olympic Spec Ad

By Eric Jung

Eric Jung's unofficial Olympic spec ad, made with Seedance, is a black and white run of athletes with panoramic camera work, a 720 around one athlete, slow motion and transitions that zoom through eyes and mouths. The chat agreed the transitions were the best part, and the black and white look reminded the hosts of Adidas. Sports physics are still a tell: the diver leaves the platform too far, the weightlifter sheds bits and the basketball dunk quietly misses. The catch with spec work like this: the Olympics guard their logo closely.

“Something that we could have only dreamed about honestly six months ago in AI video was stuff like this.”Chris Branch · ▶ 54:15

Seedance 2.0

Audience verdictNot put to the vote

Original post →

07 · ▶ on the show at 59:33

Ford Truck Ad ($10 Budget)

By Alex Patrascu

Alex Patrascu made this one-minute truck ad with Seedance 2.0 in CapCut for $10, and it looks remarkably like a real Ford spot. Chris was clear the storytelling isn't groundbreaking; the point is how much usable footage $10 buys, exactly what Metapuppet described the week before. The hosts' bigger worry was intent: if Ford ran it with an AI small business owner, it would come off terribly, whereas interviewing a real owner and adding AI shots of the truck and the dirt would land far better.

“For $10 he's got a minute's worth of usable clips here that all work together.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:01:04

Seedance 2.0 CapCut

Audience verdictNot put to the vote

Original post →

08 · ▶ on the show at 1:15:25

OpenArt Hotel

By OpenArt

OpenArt's own ad for its all-in-one studio, pitched as the cure for tool hopping: a guest on a deadline checks into a Wes Anderson style hotel, where the concierge walks her from the photo booth to the cinema to make a pilot squirrel fly and then dance in the city of love. It fought the stream for a while before it finally played. Chris called it the standard every launch video should meet, though the last scene ran long, and the chat placed the concierge's Austin Powers voice.

“How can you make it fun? How can you make it engaging? How can you make it have a story line and something that's actually watchable?”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:22:04

Audience verdictNot put to the vote

Original post →

09 · ▶ on the show at 1:23:48

Orange Christmas Ad

By AI Candy

AI Candy's official hybrid AI campaign for Orange, one of Belgium's largest telecom providers: a boy, a lobster and Just the Two of Us. It took a couple of attempts to play, but it landed, and Chris said it looked like a real ad. As far as he understood, the boy was real footage and only the lobster was AI, the hybrid approach both hosts think will dodge the backlash for now. AI Candy is a trio in Belgium, and Chris compared their rise to The Dor Brothers'.

“I think special effects to make that lobster like that would have cost hundreds of thousands, and AI special effects is going to fill that void in the meantime.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:30:51

Audience verdictNot put to the vote

Original post →

10 · ▶ on the show at 1:27:26

Pizza Hut Commercial

By AI Candy

Two back-to-back Pizza Hut spots from AI Candy for a real client: the first built around a deal, the second with a much more fun character, both promoting price offers. Chris read them as exactly the kind of promo brief any agency gets, and liked that they lean into floating pizza that is obviously not trying to be real. Mary noticed the server carrying hot pans with no oven mitts. Hans from AI Candy was watching live, and Chris pointed to the decades of production and TV experience behind the team.

Audience verdictNot put to the vote

Original post →

11 · ▶ on the show at 1:36:54

Nexus Streaming

By LTX Studio

LTX Studio invented a streaming brand, Nexus, and made a full ad for it with its own tools: a woman's delivery drags her through giants, goblins, trolls and an octopus before the strapline, bring the extraordinary home safely. Chris loved the tone, mood, palette and CGI characters, and called the made-up brand a genius way to show off a platform. Then the debate: Paul had confirmed it was AI, Hans from AI Candy thought it was hybrid, and Andrew spotted scars vanishing from the woman's face between shots.

“Their brief to themselves was instead of just showcasing us, we're going to make up a brand and make a whole ad for this brand that doesn't exist.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:39:58

LTX Studio

Audience verdictNot put to the vote

Original post →

12 · ▶ on the show at 1:44:46

Aston Martin F1 Launch Film

By Paul Trillo, Asteria

Aston Martin and CoreWeave asked for a launch film that had never been done before, so Paul Trillo and Asteria combined live action, miniatures, AR blocking, 3D motion tracking, particle simulations and hand-painted keyframes with a custom LoRA trained on Marey, their clean model built on licensed, opted-in data. The 3D car model was fused with the video data so every curve, wing and logo stayed exact, with a team of over 25 people. Chris said only Paul could have answered this brief so fully.

“Genuinely the word pioneering is overused, but in Paul's case I'd say he's one of the true AI pioneers, actually making things that don't even exist yet, whereas we're all just using tools that already exist.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:50:24

Marey

Audience verdictNot put to the vote

Original post →

13 · ▶ on the show at 1:50:51

Seedance 2.0 is Incredible for Fight Scenes

By Dave Clark

Dave Clark pushed Seedance 2.0 where he knows it's strongest: a one-minute fight between masked men on a falling building, with a helicopter and a dive. Andrew, who watches a lot of action films, had never seen a fight this intricate on a collapsing building, and it reminded the hosts of a James Bond opening. Chris said you'd once need to be in the top 1% of filmmakers to dream of that budget, and gave Dave credit for making something original instead of borrowing IP. Mary saw Superman, The Matrix and Michael Bay in it.

“You'd have to basically be in the top 1% of filmmakers to even pretend that a budget like this would be possible.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:52:33

Seedance 2.0

Audience verdictNot put to the vote

Original post →

14 · ▶ on the show at 1:54:41

Women in AI

By Rony F.

Rony F.'s music video began with a 2am realisation: since 2022, almost everyone in Rony's AI world, from the feed to the tutorials to the default AI protagonist, has been a man, and AI-generated women still follow beauty standards scraped from the internet. The answer is a custom song that reminded the hosts of Hairspray, plus a Will Smith spaghetti nod. Anita sent it in, Mary called it unhinged in the best way, and Chris, who wants to promote more women in AI, closed the show on it.

Audience verdictNot put to the vote

Original post →

Said live

“I actually thought that from an instrumental point of view that was the best tool. I feel better than Suno, better than Udio purely to do instrumentals.”

Andrew DavisOn Producer AI, just acquired by Google▶ 4:25

“Advertising is just going crazy. Brands of all sizes all around the world now are dipping their toe in to have a go at this.”

Chris BranchWhy AI LIVE is pivoting to advertising▶ 19:38

“Instead, now we can use these generations less like a slot machine and be much more granular and fine-tuning with editing them.”

Chris BranchOn Seedance 2.0 video inpainting▶ 43:54

“If I think back to my big agency experience, the one thing they never did was treat themselves like a client.”

Chris BranchOn how AI Candy wins big brands with viral pieces▶ 1:34:59

“It's just bonkers that we're having to think, was that a real woman? Was that not? Was that real footage? Was it not?”

Chris BranchOn LTX Studio's Nexus Streaming ad▶ 1:42:25

“Genuinely the word pioneering is overused, but in Paul's case I'd say he's one of the true AI pioneers.”

Chris BranchOn Paul Trillo's Aston Martin F1 film▶ 1:50:24

“Now all of a sudden you can make scenes like this happen.”

Andrew DavisOn Dave Clark's Seedance 2.0 fight scene▶ 1:52:26

Quotes are trimmed of filler words for reading. Every timestamp opens the show at that moment.

Chapters

Questions this episode answers

What was AI LIVE Episode 111 about?

Episode 111 (3 March 2026) was AI LIVE's first show in its new Tuesday slot and the start of a shift towards AI advertising. Chris Branch hosted with co-host Andrew Davis, who stepped out for about half an hour mid-show, and showed 14 pieces, four of them news items, including Curious Refuge's Seedance 2.0 video inpainting reel, AI Candy's hybrid Orange and Pizza Hut ads for real clients, LTX Studio's Nexus Streaming ad and Paul Trillo's Aston Martin F1 launch film. There was no live audience vote on this show.

What is Seedance 2.0 video inpainting?

It lets you upload an existing video as a reference and change one part of it with a text prompt, such as an eye, the weather, or a cow becoming a bear, while the rest of the shot stays the same. In Curious Refuge's examples the model even relit the scene to match. Runway's Aleph and Luma had similar video modification first, and Chris expects it to become standard because editing is as important as generating.

How was Paul Trillo's Aston Martin F1 launch film made?

Paul Trillo and Asteria began with hand-drawn storyboards enhanced with AI and animated them into an animatic. They trained a custom LoRA on Marey, a commercially safe model built on licensed data, fused the video data with a 3D model of the car so it stayed accurate, shot miniatures for real camera movement, blocked shots in augmented reality, then used 3D tracking, particle simulations, hand-painted keyframes and compositing to finish it, with a team of over 25 people.

Why do the AI LIVE hosts think hybrid AI ads are the commercial sweet spot?

Hybrid ads mix real footage with AI elements, like AI Candy's Orange ad, where a real boy shares the screen with an AI lobster. Chris Branch and Andrew Davis argued that this avoids the backlash brands face when they replace real people with AI, while AI special effects do work that would once have cost hundreds of thousands. As the hosts put it, people aren't against the technology, they judge how you've used it.

Should you subscribe to a video model directly or to a platform like Higgsfield or Weavy?

Chris Branch splits the market into foundational models such as Kling, Runway and Veo, and workspaces such as Weavy, Freepik and Higgsfield that give you access to many models, nodes and workflows. Workspaces can be more cost-effective if you use several models, but on one client job his team needed far more Veo videos than a third-party plan allowed, so subscribing directly to Google's top tier for unlimited access was the better option. Start from which tool the brief needs most.

How can I get my AI work featured on AI LIVE?

Submit it through the form at theailiveshow.com. Every Tuesday at 4pm UK the hosts review the best submissions live on LinkedIn and YouTube, and every piece goes to a live audience vote: 1 for awesome, 2 for okay, 3 for not for me.

Show notes

AI LIVE moved to Tuesdays this week, with Chris's co-founder Paul Parsons directing the show from the back end for the first time, a new intro made with Seedance and a new format: short pieces play in full, then run muted beside the hosts for commentary. Chris also announced a pivot towards AI advertising, with real ads, AI ads and spec ads every week, because that's where the money in AI is.

The news ran for 45 minutes: Google buying Producer AI, formerly Riffusion, Google Flow's expansion and Nano Banana 2, Grok's longer video scenes, Figma files generated from Codex, Perplexity Computer and the risks of running OpenClaw yourself, Runway's Character Renderer, Canva acquiring MangoAI and Cavalry, Recraft V4 Vector, and Seedance 2.0 video inpainting. Andrew stepped out for about half an hour in the middle and came back for the ads.

The ads ran from a real Adidas campaign with Samuel L. Jackson to Eric Jung's Olympic spec ad, a $10 truck ad, OpenArt's hotel, AI Candy's hybrid client work for Orange and Pizza Hut with the AI Candy team watching live, LTX Studio's made-up Nexus brand and Paul Trillo's Aston Martin F1 film, before Dave Clark's fight scene and Rony F.'s Women in AI closed the show. There was no live vote this week, and Chris was off to host the advertising panel at the Bionic Awards in London that Thursday.

Episode: 111
Format: Weekly show
Aired: 3 March 2026
Runtime: 2:02:22
Pieces reviewed: 10
Live votes counted: n/a

Tools on the table

Nano Banana 2 Runway Seedance 2.0 CapCut LTX Studio Marey

On the show

Chris BranchHost
Andrew DavisCo-host
Paul ParsonsProducer

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