Joanna Stern over at The Wall Street Journal has unveiled another mind-blowing development: with the help of WSJ staff, she created a three-minute movie in which nearly every scene, shot, and line of dialogue was generated using AI tools: specifically, Google Veo 2 and 3, ElevenLabs, and Runway.

As impressive as it is, you can tell you’re watching AI. There’s that familiar ultra-smooth feel, some shots of Joanna don’t quite look like her, and action sequences fall short of believability (for example, her karate kick barely connects but still shatters the target like something out of a low-budget CGI fest).

But it’s not hard to imagine how quickly this could evolve toward Hollywood-level production values. Probably the bigger shock is the price (or lack thereof): The entire short cost only about $1,000 to make. I’m no filmmaker, but I assume this is a fraction of what traditional filmmaking calls for.

We’ve come a long way since that bizarre, now-iconic Will Smith spaghetti video. It’s become an understatement to say AI is changing so fast. With these tools now available, what can we expect in another 3 years?