# Checkpoint

- Date: 2023-02-21
- Type: film
- Credit: Áron Filkey & Joss Fong
- Genre: Documentary
- Artists: [Áron Filkey](https://aifilmhistory.org/artist/aron-filkey), [Joss Fong](https://aifilmhistory.org/artist/joss-fong)
- Made with: ChatGPT
- Award: Gold — Runway AIFF 2023 — Runway AI Film Festival 2023
- Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqRt-wFdlyc
- URL: https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/checkpoint-filkey-fong

A six-minute video essay on where generative AI fits in the long history of creative technology, and the Gold winner at [Runway's first AI Film Festival](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/aiff-2023). It sets today's backlash against AI images beside painters' hostility to photography in the 1800s, and argues that painting found its way forward once it no longer had to be photorealistic. Made for SPACE10, IKEA's research lab, it uses AI throughout, with a ChatGPT-drafted script, a synthetic narrator and generated imagery. Runway later called it a masterclass in craft.

Links:
- AIFF 2023 winners: https://aif.runwayml.com/2023
- Checkpoint on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/801101673

---
Source: https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/checkpoint-filkey-fong
Era: 2023 · The Cambrian Explosion
Last updated: 2026-10-19