Episode 98 · Weekly show · 2h 0m
Episode 98 was the post-Adobe MAX show, with Chris Branch back from Los Angeles nursing festival flu and Andrew Davis keeping things moving. The headline from MAX: Adobe is coming for every part of AI. The work backed it up. MetaPuppet's Kyra, a train ride through a whole life made in under two weeks, was the only AI film given its own main-stage showcase, and Dave Clark's My Friend, Zeph blended real actresses with AI worlds in a true hybrid production. Simon Meyer's lonely Halloween monster, the open-source LTX-2 launch, new work from The Dor Brothers, Vinted's first AI ad and the story of Hachiko filled out a packed two hours. There was no audience poll on this show.
The big players are all in. At Adobe MAX, Adobe showed it is going after every part of AI, from a ComfyUI-style rival and agentic tools to sound, voice, video and storyboarding, and Figma bought Weavy the day after.
Constraints and personal material make the most memorable work. MetaPuppet had under two weeks to make Kyra and built it from his own photos of a graffiti-covered building that has since been demolished, and it was the only AI film to get a main-stage showcase at MAX.
Hybrid production is the new normal. Dave Clark's My Friend, Zeph mixed real actresses shot on blue screen with AI-generated worlds, and Dave loved that viewers couldn't tell where the real stopped and the AI started.
When the story works, nobody talks about the AI. After Simon Meyer's Halloween monster, the hosts noticed they were praising the storytelling and the twist, not the tools.
A soft launch is the smart first AI ad. Vinted's first AI ad was made in house, short and clean, and nobody would have guessed it was AI, which is exactly why it didn't annoy customers.
Spec ads are still the way in. Sybil went from early Midjourney concepts to commissioned work for Ferragamo, and the hosts' advice to any strong AI video maker was spec ads, spec ads, spec ads.
19 pieces, in show order. Tap any one to watch the creator's original post.
By Glenn
An experimental series from Glenn, an AI LIVE regular who was watching in the chat. Chris had already featured it but felt it deserved a proper showcase on the show, and he loved seeing Glenn push beyond his concept ads into experimental art and challenges. The hosts asked Glenn to share his setup in the comments. The chat was full of praise for the detail, and Lady M summed it up: the clarity in the details was stunning.
By KK Sylio
The first of the Halloween catch-up pieces: a spec ad for the Adidas Adizero, set in London. A zombie chase, then the pitch that the new Adizero is super light and built to make you quicker than ever, so even the zombies can run. A silly little concept that both hosts liked, and it hinged entirely on the idea. It sparked a bigger debate: brands can't stop AI spec ads, so the smart move is to share the ones they like and ignore the rest.
A second Halloween spec, this time for Nike and set in rugby. A dark spoken-word script turns the sport's violence into value: cruelty becomes currency, and success is measured not in quarterly earnings but in ribs cracked and egos shattered. It left both hosts saying wow. In the comments Stu called the ad incredible, and Drago asked what everyone was thinking: how does he keep the treatment so consistent?
04 · breaking news · ▶ on the show at 25:05
By Lightricks
LTX-2 arrived as a new open-source video model with sound effects built in and native 4K resolution, launched with a short 25-second clip. Chris was careful not to call it a Veo 3.1 killer: probably the best in open source, but still behind the big closed models on quality and physics. Its strengths are that it is lightweight, cheap and can be self-hosted, and it is European. The hosts loved the magnifying glass zooming across the frame as a way to sell 4K.
“This is probably easily the best in the open source space, but it's definitely still lagging behind some of the quality and physics understanding of the bigger ones.”Chris Branch · ▶ 25:37
By Dave Johnson
Dave Johnson's AI music video for Peter Gabriel's Games Without Frontiers, made with the poignancy of some of the latest news in mind. Cool, sad and all over the place, with no real storyline: a Terminator character in a meeting, then suddenly an alien world. Not the most cutting-edge generations, but the visual metaphors landed, and Lady M spoke for both hosts: not sure what she'd just watched, but she liked it. Andrew saw a business in it for music publishers.
“If I owned the publishing to a lot of old records, I would probably be thinking, you know what, let me just see if we can get some AI and put these videos up.”Andrew Davis · ▶ 38:18
Chris had been saying for weeks that AI creators have finally made enough great work for their showreels to look properly impressive, and this one proved it. Both hosts agreed it's exactly how to do a showreel: some pieces they recognised, others looked epic and completely new to them, and it made them want to go and watch everything in it. Chris spotted clips from a France TV winter games film he already had, so that came next.
“We're finally in the era now where people have made enough cool stuff that their showreels actually look really impressive.”Chris Branch · ▶ 39:26
The full winter sports film for France TV that Chris recognised from Stefan Benini's showreel. There were no credits at the end, but he was clearly involved. The standout scenes were a snowboarder dropping down into a Roman colosseum and grinding a halfpipe of marble statues that looked like they were made of snow. To an advertising eye, the snowboarder looked like one frame with the background stitched together around him, and it got big reactions in the chat.
Sent in at the last minute by Sander, whom Chris met at Adobe MAX: a new short from Kavan the Kid, known for one of the longest AI films yet at around 22 minutes. This one is a minute and a half, and a dark turn on Peter Pan: Tink is cursed, the lost boys are gone, Peter isn't here anymore and Hook is waiting at the docks. As always with Kavan, the sound design stood out, and it felt like a clip from a much longer film.
New work from The Dor Brothers, and this time it looks like client work, possibly an opening sequence for someone's podcast. Chris warned American viewers to expect their politics to appear. Drum and bass, loads of tiny pictures, and visuals matching the pace of the drums: the hosts read it as song first, then generations timed to the beat. Mary in the chat: and the Oscar goes to our political leadership. You either love them or hate them, and they'll always get work.
“It's lucky that they got to do that as client work, because that looked like the most Dor Brothers video of all time.”Chris Branch · ▶ 50:05
By Simon Meyer
The Halloween piece of the year, sent in by Eric, with millions of views on LinkedIn. A monster explains that people don't mean to be cruel, they just see a monster: he tried yoga, tried a dating app, and mostly stays home. Halloween is the one night he can walk around and feel human. Then the twist: what scares him is being alone. The hosts realised they were praising the story, not the AI. Simon's 19-second vertical thank-you, also sent by Eric, followed later.
“It was definitely the Halloween piece of the year as far as I've watched it.”Chris Branch · ▶ 51:09
Probably the last Halloween piece of the year, and a measure of how far AI video has come since last Halloween. It isn't in English, so the takeaway needed explaining: all the scary characters are addicted to their phones, because the phone is now the real monster for children. Chris had translated the post, and Andrew admitted he'd missed it the first time. In the chat, Mary was more unsettled by the swing set squeaking when nobody was on it.
“There's a lot scarier things for kids to worry about than the Halloween monsters.”Chris Branch · ▶ 56:41
By MetaPuppet, Promise Studios
The showcase of the week. Adobe commissioned the film for MAX, and it was the only AI creator's piece given a personal main-stage showcase. MetaPuppet had under two weeks, working in Firefly and Boards, which call on other tools; Chris thought the older passengers looked like Veo 3. It grew from his photos of a graffiti-covered building since demolished, bringing the art back to life, and he drummed the opening himself. Life as a train, one carriage per age. Chris called it maybe his top three AI film ever.
“I had a dream exactly like that where I was walking through a train and my whole life was going before me.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:06:18
By Dave Clark, Promise Studios
Dave Clark's film for the same Adobe MAX programme, dedicated to his daughter. Maya is putting off a college application until Zeph, the imaginary friend from her childhood, pulls her back into a world that is unravelling. Dave cast two real actresses and shot some of it on blue screen, then generated the worlds and the portal, and told Chris he loved that people couldn't tell where the AI stopped. The hosts called it hybrid production, and Andrew planned to show it at a training session for Amazon Prime.
“There's going to be real filmmakers with real cameras and AI artists on set, actually generating things that go on to blue screens, green screens.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:22:05
A second version of the glitch effect Chris showed a couple of weeks earlier, with a wobbly, warping background: Masaki Mizuno experimenting with AI as a visual effect. Chris thinks there may be Stable Diffusion under the hood and hopes to see it as the star of a more serious project. Both hosts found it unique. It's the kind of look only AI can make, which the hosts later held up as a test for whether a brand has used AI well.
“I just can't wait for this to be applied to music videos and films.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:26:56
By Vinted
A real ad, and Vinted's first AI one: homeware, books, tech and fashion, sold with no fees. Made in house, short, snappy and cleanly transitioned, with nice music layered over the top. Chris congratulated the team, because most brands he talks to get their first AI move wrong by trying to replace models. Vinted came in softly instead, and nobody would have guessed it was AI. It's now his go-to example for brands asking how to start without too much heat.
“You've done a really great job of not annoying your customers because no one would have even guessed that's AI.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:29:41
By Bentley
A real Bentley ad, not a spec, that used AI only in parts, so the game was spotting where. Neither host could say for sure: the green thread forming the B looked like a clean transition, and speed ramping can hide a lot. The bigger point was cost, since traditional CGI and VFX would put this in six figures. The catch is that car brands want a one-for-one vehicle with no warping, so some continuity compromises are still part of the deal.
“If that was CGI and VFX, then you're talking $100,000.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:33:34
By Sybil
Real commissioned work from Sybil, who started out alongside the hosts in the Midjourney version 5 days and built a niche making concepts for high-end fashion brands. Those concepts led to clients, and now to a studio. This film for Ferragamo sneaks into a waiting room and reads people by their feet: the gossip, the good listener, the copycat, the night owl, the Cinderella, the flirt, until one name fits them all. David in the chat: the persistence of toes is truly remarkable.
“Concepts led to real client work.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:39:29
Richard Goforth's film for a war museum opens on Psalm 23 and drops into the trenches, with a soldier's poem of mud, blood and tears and the love he left behind. Chris saved it for late in the show because it's the gorier one, and played it for how well it's put together, from the sound to the poetry. Hal, a former podcast guest who won the Curious Refuge AI film competition, was in the chat watching too.
“It was so well done from a sound perspective and it was poetic, the whole thing, and was just wrapped together really well.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:48:02
By Christian Ha
To close, the story of Hachiko, Japan's most famous dog and its story of loyalty, shared by Matteo at Google. Hachi was 18 months old when his owner, Professor Hidesaburō Ueno, suddenly died, and he waited at Shibuya station day after day for nine years and nine months. The hosts loved the story and the soundtrack, and agreed with the chat that the joyful pan flute music brings a smile. Christine reminded everyone it has been told on film before.
“They're coming for everything, mate. Every single pie.”
“I think it's going to be the last year where we can do stuff so freely without it costing a lot of money and without ads being involved and without regulations.”
“This is maybe my top three AI film ever.”
“That's definitely one of my top threes that I've seen.”
“I think Chris's selection of videos is always spot on. Also when you play them, you can tell you're a DJ.”
“There's going to be real filmmakers with real cameras and AI artists on set, actually generating things that go on to blue screens, green screens.”
“I'm going to showcase that video just to kind of say to them, look, AI is not taking your job.”
Quotes are trimmed of filler words for reading. Every timestamp opens the show at that moment.
Episode 98 (6 November 2025) was the show after Adobe MAX. Chris Branch hosted with co-host Andrew Davis and reviewed 18 AI pieces plus the LTX-2 launch, including MetaPuppet's Kyra, made in under two weeks and shown on the Adobe MAX main stage, Dave Clark's hybrid film My Friend, Zeph, and Simon Meyer's viral Halloween monster. There was no audience poll on this show; the hosts' pick of the week was Kyra.
Kyra was one of the films Adobe commissioned for Adobe MAX 2025, and MetaPuppet had under two weeks to make it with Promise Studios. It was made inside Adobe's ecosystem with Firefly and Boards, which call on other models, and Chris Branch believed the talking older passengers came from Veo 3. The story grew from photos MetaPuppet had taken of a graffiti-covered building before it was demolished, and he drummed the opening sequence himself.
Hybrid production mixes real filmmaking with AI generation. Dave Clark's My Friend, Zeph, shown on 6 November 2025, cast two real actresses and filmed some scenes on blue screen, then used AI to generate the worlds and the portal around them. Chris Branch said the future will include pure AI, pure live action and every hybrid in between, and the hosts expect to see more hybrid films than pure AI feature films.
LTX-2 is an open-source AI video model with native 4K output and built-in sound. On AI LIVE Episode 98, Chris Branch called it probably the best in the open-source space, but said it still lags behind bigger models like Veo 3.1 on quality and physics. Its advantages are that it is lightweight, cheap to run, can be self-hosted, and is European.
Softly. On 6 November 2025 the hosts held up Vinted's first AI ad as the model: made in house, short and clean, with nothing that set out to replace people, and nobody would have guessed it was AI. The hosts contrasted it with businesses that handle AI badly and wipe value off their shares, and for creators the advice was to make spec ads to get on brands' radar.
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.
Chris Branch was back from Adobe MAX in Los Angeles with what he politely called festival flu, so he promised more videos and less talking. StreamYard had just added on-screen comments, so for the first time viewers could see each other's chat on the stream.
The news from MAX was that Adobe is coming for everything: a ComfyUI-style rival, agentic tools, sound, voice, video and storyboarding, with Figma buying Weavy the day after. Between the pieces, the hosts covered Freepik Spaces and node-based canvases, the open-source LTX-2 launch, why companies worry about data safety in AI, and why "I ChatGPT'd it" will never be as smooth as "I Googled it".
A Halloween catch-up came first, led by Simon Meyer's lonely monster, then the films from MAX: MetaPuppet's Kyra and Dave Clark's My Friend, Zeph, both with Promise Studios. The last stretch turned to advertising, with Vinted's first AI ad, a partly AI Bentley spot and Sybil's commissioned Ferragamo film, before a war museum film and the story of Hachiko closed the show.
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