Meet the guy whose AI infomercials turn tech’s grand visions into late-night schlock
Infomercials have long promised miracle products for everyday life, using a mix of manufactured urgency (“call now!”), flash sales, and rave reviews. Now, one veteran filmmaker is using hyperbole and cringe not to sell kitchen gadgets and supplements, but to turn tech and political leaders’ grand visions into low-brow sales pitches with AI.
In “Open Living,” created by Ari Kuschnir, a cheery deepfake of Sam Altman invites people to move into a global network of communities housed within data centers, with perks that include a rooftop pool heated by vibe coding, lab-grown food, and unlimited nicotine pouches: “Are you angry that a data center moved into your community? Move into ours. Best of all you don’t own anything.”
Kuschnir’s AI-generated infomercials tap into the ’90s to create “cozy dystopias” based loosely on modern-day headlines.
In recent weeks, he’s made more than a dozen hyperrealistic shorts that take the grand visions of tech and political leaders and “follow the thing that’s in them to the nth degree.” One portrays Mark Zuckerberg as a pitchman marketing a clunky beige AI wearable to replace human relationships. In another, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pitches a wellness product with ingredients sourced from recent pathogen-contaminated food recalls.
“I get to do what I really want to do, which is expose the truth and the darkness,” Kuschnir says. “Plus, I get to put these guys in their place almost better than with the cinematic approach.”
The humble format is a perfect medium for Kuschnir’s message. It’s already been used for decades to sell absurd products. Now, making them with AI is “like using the master’s tools” and taking a “weird vision that’s already kind of twisted and twisting it even more,” as Kuschnir puts it. The low-brow format strips away their polished facades and recasts them as late-night hucksters selling things that overhype and underdeliver.
One of the most recent, released this week, features President Donald Trump delivering a rapid-fire recap of his many policy changes that culminates in a pitch to turn Yosemite National Park into a Trump-themed resort: “We did it mostly for money, some of it out of spite to own the libs, some of it just for fun.” Others featuring Trump include one inviting Americans on “Cruise to Hormuz” and another pitching a neural implant called “Trump Sleep.” Another isn’t an infomercial at all, but a fake soap opera trailer called “As The World Burns,” starring Trump and his assistant Natalie Harp.