Amazon’s ‘House of David’ Employed Over 350 AI Images in Season 2, and Its Creator Has No Regrets

At the beginning of the Amazon Prime series House of David season 2, right after the iconic David defeats Goliath with a stone to his forehead, chaos ensues around the biblical character.

A gritty visual layer partially obscures throngs of men in the desert, engaged in swordplay both in armor and on horseback. With a few adjustments to their costumes, this scene could easily appear as if it’s from Game of Thrones or Dune. However, House of David showrunner Jon Erwin notes that they lacked the budget to fully realize these scenes. Instead, he opted for AI.

“The entire shot is created using these tools virtually,” Erwin explains to WIRED. “The expense of enhancing those shots is negligible compared to what it would have cost to produce those using traditional VFX techniques.”

Erwin’s faith-based production company, the Wonder Project, provided WIRED with nearly two dozen still images from “primarily AI-generated scenes” featured in House of David season 2. They report using over four times as many AI shots compared to the first season—from more than 70 in season 1 to an estimated 350 to 400 in season 2. The second season chronicles the story of the future King David of Israel in 1000 BCE.

Many of the images depict crowds amid battle scenes, but AI also contributed to visuals of stone fortresses, fires sweeping through hills, and heroes gazing from mountaintops at misty vistas. They possess none of the awkward traits associated with past generative AI outputs, making it believable that they were created using AI.

“Assuming we only have funds for a certain scale within the frame,” Erwin remarks. “You can utilize a very real camera on an actual actor, directing both the actor and the camera, essentially transforming that into the hand of a puppet. The puppet itself represents this digital realm you construct.”

Erwin’s portrayal of “magical” AI filmmaking starkly contrasts with the opinions held by many in Hollywood and its viewers. Oscar-winning director Frankenstein Guillermo del Toro recently expressed to WIRED his wish to pass away before AI art becomes commonplace, likening the “arrogance” of tech enthusiasts to Victor Frankenstein himself. Wicked star Ariana Grande reacted favorably to an Instagram post suggesting she never wants to encounter an AI-generated image again. Additionally, Coca-Cola has braced itself for yet another wave of consumer backlash regarding its second annual AI-generated holiday advertisement, which sparked reactions such as, “The biggest company in the world proudly admitting to hastening the apocalypse and asking ‘what are you going to do about it?’”

Despite this, Coca-Cola executives and AI advocates like Erwin argue that the loudest critics are becoming a diminishing minority (with the founder of the AI firm behind the Coke ad stating to the Hollywood Reporter that the critics are primarily creatives “worried about their jobs” rather than “average individuals”). Meanwhile, AI firms like Runway are forming partnerships with studios such as Lionsgate to develop custom AI instruments based on their archives. Erwin mentioned utilizing Runway’s “image to video” tools, along with Luma’s “modification” features and offerings from Google and Adobe.