Can a computer write a script? Machine learning goes Hollywood

San Jose-based Adobe is experimenting with using machine learning to help mimic someone's voice. Its technology can create a synthetic version of a person's voice with 30 minutes of their audio. (Adobe)

Award-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald has directed many movies, including the drama The Last King of Scotland and thriller State of Play. But last year was the first time Macdonald worked with a script written by a machine. 

Macdonald directed a 60-second Lexus sedan commercial using artificial intelligence that relied on tech giant IBM’s platform, Watson. The computer produced a script featuring a sentient-like Lexus ES that hits the open road, whizzing by stunning vistas of shoreline and forests before saving itself from a dramatic crash.