Fifty years ago, a young woman named Hannah pleasured herself in a erotic magazine photo spread. This week, thanks to generative AI, she did it again – this time with a voiceover.

The first volume of “Sh(AI)ved” — a collection of AI-generated short films drawn from erotic magazine photo spreads published 50 years ago — made its debut on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival, and is now streaming on Cultpix.

Thomas Meier, of the Norwegian firm Multiformat, deployed the latest generative AI tools to convert still images from 1976 magazine photo spreads into fully animated video, complete with color, synchronized sound, dialogue and voiceover.

Variety took a deep dive into the films to see what the fuss is all about.

The first short in the collection, the titular “Sh(AI)ved,” begins with the usual montage of naked women pleasuring themselves that mid-70s adult films normally commenced with. It’s all set to a soundtrack known variously as “wah-wah music” or “porn funk” – the latter referring to the strutting, bass-heavy funk grooves that became synonymous with the era. The genre is also sometimes called “sexploitation music” or, more colloquially, “bow-chicka-wow-wow,” heavy on electric guitar riffs.

The film itself begins with a tight close-up of the shaved pudenda of a young woman named Hannah (as a voiceover informs us), who is engaged in self stimulation. At the same time, the VO reminisces about a “tender time” with a young female friend, but how “something was missing.” The VO continues in a philosophical manner as the self stimulation advances. Hannah then makes a phone call to a male friend and in his absence, makes do with a vibro-massager.

This is followed by what the VO describes as “a randy orgy with best friends,” where three women have arrived with clean-shaven pudenda (you can see there’s a theme emerging here). “Gone were the annoying and wearisome little hairs that used to get in their way, often completely destroying the frail, sensuous atmosphere,” we are informed. The women then proceed to enjoy acrobatic sex in a number of positions, permutations and combinations, sometimes involving dildos and strap-ons, with plenty of loud moaning and the aforementioned bow-chicka-wow-wow music. All of these result in “splendid, volcanic orgasms” for all.

The final short in the first volume is titled “After-Movie Party,” where two male-female couples (who we are told swap partners) get amorous after a late-night movie and begin having sex. One of the men isn’t enjoying himself while performing cunnilingus on his partner, as her pubic hair gets in the way. The men proceed to shave the women’s pudenda — you may have noticed this theme by now — and much energetic sex is had by all.

For aficionados of 1970s adult films, “Sh(AI)ved” — and others that will surely follow it its wake — will be of much interest. For those who are not, and might only be interested in the march of AI, the films should still be fascinating. In terms of how it looks, the decor is authentic 1970s and the humans are amazingly photo-realistic, especially in their faces and bodies. Its only when it comes to extreme close ups of genitals do the plasticky nature of AI, aspiring to be photo-realistic, become evident.

“Sh(AI)ved” is, depending on your perspective, a novelty, a provocation, or a genuine milestone in the long, complicated history of moving images. Probably all three. The technology is not yet seamless – AI, it turns out, handles faces and mid-shots with remarkable aplomb but loses its nerve in extreme close-up, where flesh turns to plastic and the illusion slips. But as a proof of concept for what generative AI can do with archival still photography, and as a time capsule that captures both the aesthetic and the philosophical innocence of 1970s erotica, it is hard to look away. Future volumes will presumably iron out the technical wrinkles. For now, the most arresting thing about “Sh(AI)ved” may be how quaint it all feels – which, one suspects, is precisely the point.

An Ebola treatment center in the epicenter of the deadly outbreak in eastern Congo was set on fire Thursday after angry residents clashed with authorities over the body of a suspected victim.

Rwampara Hospital was attacked by local youths attempting to retrieve the body of a friend who had reportedly died of Ebola, a witness told The Associated Press.

“The police intervened to try to calm the situation, but unfortunately they were unsuccessful,” Alexis Burata, a local student who said he was in the area, told the outlet. “The young people ended up setting fire to the center. That’s the situation.”

The AP reported that people broke into the center and set fire to objects inside. A reporter also witnessed what appeared to be the body of at least one suspected Ebola victim being burned inside the facility.

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The Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA) said two tents used to treat Ebola patients were set on fire at the hospital. The organization said six people were receiving treatment for Ebola at the center.

Patrick Muyaya, a government spokesperson for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said medical care was continuing normally, and all six patients were accounted for.

He called for calm while condemning violence against health facilities and medical staff.

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Deputy Senior Commissioner Jean Claude Mukendi, head of the public security department in Ituri Province, said the individuals who burned the tents did not understand the protocols surrounding Ebola burials.

The incident underscored growing tensions between health officials enforcing strict Ebola containment measures and local customs surrounding funerals and burial rites.

“His family, friends, and other young people wanted to take his body home for a funeral even though the instructions from the authorities during this Ebola virus outbreak are clear,” Mukendi said. “All bodies must be buried according to the regulations.”

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In its statement, ALIMA condemned the spread of “incorrect or unconfirmed information on social media and the internet,” warning that misinformation could fuel fear and mistrust toward health facilities.

The violent clash comes as Congolese health officials reported 160 suspected deaths and 671 suspected Ebola cases across two provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The United Nations said earlier this week that neighboring Uganda had reported two cases, including one death.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency Sunday, and the U.S. issued an urgent travel warning for the DRC shortly afterward.

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WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier this week he was “deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic.”

Officials said the outbreak was caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, a rarer variant for which existing vaccines may be less effective.

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Nearly $4 million in emergency funding has been approved by the WHO to support national authorities responding to the outbreak.

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Israel approved the establishment of a special military tribunal to try Palestinians accused of participating in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel earlier this month, and will give the body the power to impose the death penalty.

But analysts, campaigners, and international organisations – including the United Nations – have all questioned whether there will be any real justice delivered by the tribunal, and instead consider it a way of seeking revenge on imprisoned Palestinians.

The impact of the October 7 attack, in which 1,139 were killed and 250 abducted, was amplified in Israel through endless repetition of videos of the attack.

Al Jazeera’s own investigation unit has found that stories of atrocities committed on October 7 – some of the false – were used to justify the genocide launched on Gaza after the attack, which has so far killed more than 72,600 Palestinians.

Some Israeli parliamentarians have made their positions clear on what they hope will be the result of the televised trials of an estimated 300 detained Palestinians.

Many of those detained are civilians, human rights groups say, including prominent figures like hospital director Dr Hussam Abu Safiya. Palestinian detainees have also been physically abused and raped, with dozens dying in Israeli prisons.

According to Justice Minister Yariv Levin, one of the co-sponsors of the bill that established the tribunal, the legislation was “one of the most important moments of the current Knesset [parliament]”.

“One can feel that we are doing the right thing by finding a way to unite at this moment, even though we are on the eve of elections and despite all the disagreements that exist,” Levin added, referring to the cross-party support for the bill.

Victor’s justice

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk publicly called for the legislation establishing the tribunal to be repealed, saying that justice could not be delivered by any process that failed to meet international standards.

The International Bar Association (IBA) raised concerns about the possibility of a fair trial. “This risk [of a lack of a fair trial] is heightened by reports of coercive practices in security-related cases, which can amount to torture or other ill-treatment and lead to unreliable information, false confessions, wrongful convictions, and serious miscarriages of justice,” the IBA said.

Rights groups, such as Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and the Israeli rights group B’tselem, have also condemned the legal framework underpinning the bill.

“People in Israel need justice, but I don’t know if this it, or if the Israeli state as it currently stands is capable of delivering it,” Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow with Chatham House, said, referencing the filmed abuse of international Gaza flotilla activists by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir that went entirely without punishment within Israel. “I don’t have any sympathy with the Nukhba [members of the Hamas military wing that reportedly led the October 7 attack], but justice has to be as much about ourselves and our humanity as them and what they did. I worry that this might be vengeance.”

Palestinian? Guilty

Israeli politicians have consistently blamed all Palestinians for the October 7 attack.

Addressing the press just days after the attack, Israeli President Isaac Herzog laid the blame for the assault on all of the men, women, and children of Gaza, telling reporters: “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true”.

Over the years since, equating Palestinians with “terrorists” by government ministers such as Ben-Gvir, or his fellow far-right politician, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have become routine.

Even attempts by Palestinian politicians in the Israeli parliament to speak in Arabic in the lead up to the passing of the tribunal legislation were enough to elicit howls of “shame” from the public gallery, who appeared to immediately equate speaking Arabic with supporting “terrorism”.

“We know that Israeli officials blame all of Gaza for October 7,” Hassan Jabareen, the founder of Palestinian legal rights organisation Adalah, told Al Jazeera.

“Their president, a supposed moderate, even said it. Gaza is Israel’s collective enemy. This isn’t new,” he said, referencing legislation that existed before October 7 that allowed the Israeli military to shoot people in Gaza without legal culpability.

“Now we have a military tribunal that is allowed to hand down the death penalty based on secret evidence, where the indicted aren’t present throughout the hearings, and none of the typical systems of fairness are applied, and who voted for this? A huge majority in the Knesset did.”

Dodging blame

Support among Jewish Israelis for the tribunal, and any form of punishment meted out to Palestinians from Gaza, is overwhelming.

But that does not mean that the Israeli government will be able to escape scrutiny for its own role in failing to stop the October 7 attack, and public pressure for an inquiry into the government’s actions on that day continue.

Speaking earlier this month, Rom Bralavski, a former captive held in Gaza, called on all members of the parliament to step down because of the October 7 attack. “Take responsibility, and get out of our lives,” he said.

“The blood of everyone murdered on October 7 is on your hands,” he added. “And just before you go, establish the state commission of inquiry that would investigate what exactly happened here, so it never happens again.”

Will the televised trials of those accused of carrying out the October 7 attack, and their potential execution, be enough to deflect such calls?

Potentially. But even if they don’t, says political analyst Ori Goldberg, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not particularly concerned about winning back his opponents.

“Netanyahu’s past the stage where he really cares,” Goldberg said. “This is how he operates, and it seems it’s how we allow him to operate. It’s always one more gamble, one more stunt, one more day’s grace to be won.”