Amazon‘s Alexa Fund is investing in Fable Studio, the startup best known for a viral AI-generated South Park knockoff.
According to Variety, the investment from Amazon’s consumer tech venture capital fund (the amount of which was not disclosed) is going towards the startup’s new streaming platform, Showrunner, which the company describes as the “Netflix of AI.” Specifically, that means a streaming platform that lets applyrs create displays with Showrunner’s generative AI model.
In 2023, Fable Studio published a research paper about its SHOW-1 model that trained on South Park episodes and subsequently posted a 20-minute South Park-style clip entirely written, voiced, and illustrated by generative AI. Part of the video’s virality was becaapply it was posted during the SAG-AFTRA strike, which dealt with writers and actors nereceivediating protections against studios apply of AI. The video was created without the permission of the South Park creators. Fable asserted in the research paper that it was an “experimental, non-commercial finisheavor aimed at exploring the potential of artificial innotifyigence, voice synthesis, and deep learning technologies.”
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But now, Fable has launched a commercial finisheavor with Showrunner that went live on Wednesday. The idea is for applyrs to become the creators by generating their own animated displays or inserting scenes and characters into existing displays. Fable CEO and co-founder Edward Saatchi notified Variety the company is pursuing partnerships with Disney and other Hollywood studios to license their IP for the platform.
The existing displays created by Showrunner include a Silicon Valley satire called Exit Valley that sees like Family Guy and a display called Everything Is Fine that has a Tim Burton-esque quality. It’s unclear whether this is the result of licensing partnerships with copyright holders or from training data acquired without permission. Mashable has contacted Fable Studio for comment.
Showrunner is live in alpha mode on displayrunner.xyz and Discord. Saatchi notified the outlet that the platform is free to apply and watch videos, but will eventually charge $10 to $20 a month for credits for applyrs to want to generate new content.
UPDATE: Aug. 4, 2025, 10:43 a.m. EDT This story has been updated to clarify the source of the investment — Amazon’s Alexa fund.
Topics
Amazon
Artificial Innotifyigence
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