When the AI Cow Speaks: Beyond Dreams for Cowpassion
For Cowpassion’s awareness and fundraising campaign, Beyond Dreams produced a promotional video created entirely with generative AI. The video centers on a frustrated dairy cow—and a serious message about animal husbandry.
For Cowpassion’s new awareness and fundraising campaign, the production company Beyond Dreams created an AI promotional film—produced entirely using generative AI. In it, the mother-calf bond has long been a part of everyday life, much to the chagrin of a rather frustrated dairy cow. The film turns conventional reality on its head: In the world of the commercial, co-housing is the norm, and everyone is happy—but is everyone really happy?
A serious message, delivered with a touch of humor
In conventional dairy farming, calves are separated from their mothers shortly after birth. Cowpassion advocates for mothers and calves to stay together. The promotional video deliberately turns this reality on its head: In a world where mother-calf rearing is already the norm, a cow speaks up—and is anything but satisfied. The comedic narrative conveys the organization’s message in an unconventional way and is designed to both raise awareness and encourage donations.
AI Makes New Stories Possible
Just a few years ago, it would have been virtually impossible for an organization like Cowpassion to bring a talking cow to life as the believable star of a promotional film. Generative AI opens up entirely new possibilities in this area. «AI now makes it possible to bring stories to life on film that would previously have been impossible due to budget constraints or production costs. For me, that’s precisely where one of the most exciting aspects of this technology lies,» says Sven Würgler, the film’s producer.
For Beyond Dreams, the focus was particularly on developing a seamless AI production workflow. Following script and shot planning, the look development phase began by defining the characters, visual language, and visual world. The individual shots were then created as AI stills before being translated into moving images using AI.
Control over Character and Cinematic Language
«For us, AI filmmaking has long been about more than just generating individual spectacular shots. The challenge lies in being able to control the characters, the visual style, and the cinematic language throughout an entire film,» explains Michael Ryser, CEO and AI Supervisor at Beyond Dreams. One aspect of the AI cow remains deliberately human: her voice. A real voice actress lends the lead character personality and comedic timing.
The film is the centerpiece of Cowpassion's new campaign and will be shared via social media, newsletters, and WhatsApp.
Responsible at Cowpassion: Evelyn Scheidegger, Katja Djuric. Person in charge at Beyond Dreams: Sven Würgler (Executive Producer), Michael Ryser (Producer and AI Supervisor), Lars Würgler (Director), David Nöthiger (AI Art Director).
