Midnight Drop AI film could herald 'new era of entertainment history'

US stealth bomber flies across a darkening sky towards Iran. Meanwhile, in Tehran, a solitary woman feeds stray cats amid rubble from recent Israeli airstrikes.

- Dan Milmo

To the uninitiated viewer, this could be a cinematic retelling of a geopolitical crisis that unfolded barely weeks ago. However, despite its polished production look, it wasn't shot anywhere, there is no location, and the woman feeding stray cats doesn't exist.

The engrossing footage is the "rough cut" of a 12-minute short film about last month's US attack on Iranian nuclear sites, made by the directors Samir Mallal and Bouha Kazmi. It is also made entirely by artificial intelligence.

The clip is based on a detail the filmmakers read in news coverage of the US bombings - a woman who walked the empty streets of Tehran feeding stray cats. Armed with the information, they have been able to make a sequence that looks as if it could have been created by a Hollywood director. The impressive speed and, for some, worrying ease with which films of this kind can be made has not been lost on broadcasting experts.