Shakun Batra and Kobayashi on AI in films, the importance of craft

Bait Society founder and director Kobayashi joined filmmaker Shakun Batra on Zero Shot by The Ken for a conversation on AI, filmmaking, advertising, and the importance of craft.

The discussion focused on a central question for the industry: what happens to cinema and commercial production when AI becomes part of the creative process?

For Bait Society, the answer is not about replacing the filmmaker.

It is about expanding the production language available to directors, producers, cinematographers, designers, editors, sound artists, and creative teams.

As AI makes image generation faster and more accessible, craft becomes even more important. Taste, direction, continuity, performance, production design, rhythm, and final execution remain the real difference between a generated image and a finished piece of cinema.

This is the model Bait Society is building: an AI-native production studio led by directors, combining machine intelligence with real production experience, cinematic discipline, and human creative judgment.

Thank you to The Ken and Zero Shot for hosting the conversation.

Listen to the episode here:
https://the-ken.com/podcasts/zero-shot/shakun-batra-and-ad-director-kobayashi-on-ai-in-films-the-importance-of-craft/