Left to itself, AI moves without feeling: flawless faces, clean light, people who belong to no one. The way to make someone feel something in a few seconds is to direct it like a film. That means deciding the place, the people, the clothes and everything else yourself, as a director, and giving the characters back their imperfections. That is why I started the campaign Don't use AI without feelings.

Where did the campaign come from?

The starting point was simple: the people AI was generating moved without any feeling. Technically impressive, emotionally empty.

The first episode started with a fisherman. When fishermen can't go out to sea, they mend their nets. When the water is rough, the smart ones don't just wait. They repair their nets, sharpen their tools, and only then wait for the storm to pass. But we didn't wait: we had him do it in the middle of the storm.

That is how I see our work in the age of AI: instead of standing still, learning every day, researching, trying every new tool.

Episode 01, The Lighthouse Storm, is set on Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela, the most lightning-struck place on Earth. Storms flash over the lake so often that sailors used the light to find their way. They called it the Lighthouse of Maracaibo. We imagined the man who still mends his nets by it.

Why do imperfections matter so much?

To feel a person, you first have to see their flaws: a scar on the face, yellowed teeth, skin burned by the sun. AI doesn't give you these on its own. You have to describe each one.

I don't do it to fill a list of details. The point is to know that person: what kind of life they have lived, what happened to their hands, what makes them laugh. The flaw is what tells the character's story.

What do I never leave to AI?

I never say "create a character, create a location" and leave the rest to the machine. That was the rule I set myself for this campaign.

As the director, I decide the location, the people, the clothes, the light, everything. AI works like one person on my crew: it does what it is asked as well as it can, but it doesn't direct the film. I wrote earlier about why most AI ads look like AI. In practice, the difference is that a director makes every one of those decisions.

Why is every episode set in a real place?

Every episode is built on the same formula: one real place, one invented character, one feeling.

Episode 02, Minus Forty, is set in Yakutsk, Siberia, the coldest major city on Earth. In winter, at around minus forty, the fish at its open-air markets are sold frozen solid, standing upright in crates like firewood. We imagined the woman who sells them, and the laugh that warms the whole market.

A real place gives the film ground to stand on. The moment a viewer thinks "this actually exists", they are ready to believe in the character too.

What do viewers say?

Most of the reactions land in the same place: the films feel emotional, and some moments genuinely make people smile. That is exactly what I want to hear about a short AI film.

What does this mean for brands?

The rule doesn't change for a brand film. Whatever the tool, a director should make the decisions, and the person on screen should feel like someone real. We make brand films and commercials on set, with AI, or both. You can read how we work on our Commercials page.

Watch the episodes: The Lighthouse Storm · Minus Forty