Michael Jackson wasn't just the King of Pop—he may have been a prophet of artificial intelligence. Long before AI tools like Sora, Runway, and Veo made visual effects accessible to anyone, Jackson's groundbreaking music videos were already pushing the boundaries of what technology could do.
From the morphing faces in "Black or White" to the futuristic aesthetics of "Scream," Jackson's videos served as innovation labs, often requiring teams from Industrial Light & Magic and budgets in the millions. Today, the same kind of visual wizardry can be achieved with a few clicks, democratizing creativity in ways Jackson might have imagined.
But this raises a paradox: if everyone can create the impossible, does it lose its magic? The video explores how Jackson anticipated generative AI, and challenges viewers to think about what they would do with such power.
"What once needed a studio and millions now fits in your pocket."
The short video (under a minute) uses AI-generated visuals to illustrate its points, acknowledging that the content has been altered or synthetically produced.