The 808 Mentality: New Storytelling with AI

​The conventional wisdom describes Generative AI as a tool, an assistant or a co-pilot. That’s not wrong. But it’s not enough. We need new stories and new storytelling experiences with AI more than just optimizing what we already know.

​What if we perceived Generative AI more like a musical instrument? Not as something you operate or prompt, but something you PLAY. More specific, what if you perceived generative AI more like an electronic drum machine or sampler, where instead of sampling and composing with beats, notes, and riffs, you sampled and composed with narrative, audio, still image and animation?

​What kind of creativity and cultural scenes might such a mentality enable?

​John Gauntt, the Co-Founder and Creative Director of the Seattle AI Film Festival will show the audience how this mentality was applied in Seattle during 2025 and what to expect in 2026.