On This Day... 1776

The Oscar-nominated director of Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan releases an AI-generated animated series on TIME's YouTube, chronicling the American Revolution on its 250th anniversary. Made with Google DeepMind. SAG-AFTRA voice cast and original score. Each episode drops on the exact anniversary of the historical event it depicts. The reception is brutal: viewers and filmmakers call it 'AI slop.' Significant not for quality but for what it represents — a major Hollywood director founding an AI studio (Primordial Soup) and going all-in on AI animation.