DogPack
- DogPack, an app for dog owners, has gained over 1 million social followers with AI videos of talking dogs.
- Talent agency WME has signed on to help the brand expand into other kinds of content.
- “We’re not trying to trick anyone, we’re just trying to give people entertainment,” one of the creators said.
Have you heard about the podcasting dogs?
A few months ago, the Montreal-based social app DogPack started posting AI videos on Instagram of a pair of dogs cracking jokes on a podcast about their owners and other breeds.
An example: “She says it’s rude to beg at the table, bro. She went on a second date just to get a free dinner.”
The original idea was to get people to download DogPack — which connects dog owners — but the canine caper quickly developed a life of its own. They’ve accumulated more than 1 million followers on Instagram and TikTok, and signed with talent agency giant WME, which will work with them to build out the brand.
Sylvie Rabineau, cohead of WME’s Literary Media department, said the dog-loving group was “enchanted” by DogPack’s content and saw an opportunity to help expand the venture and ethos across television, brands, licensing and merchandising, and philanthropy.
Dov Punski, one of the four brothers behind the company, said they’d experimented with different types of AI-generated videos, but they didn’t always land well. The so-called “Pawdcast” hit a chord.
“People don’t like to feel like they’re being tricked,” Punski said. “This is obviously not real. We’re not trying to trick anyone, we’re just trying to give people entertainment.”
The pod’s popularity has helped build momentum for the app, which now has 2 million users in 20 countries. But the success of the videos also convinced the team to build a business around Goldie and Frenchie. The pair has expanded from jokes to do-gooding, like promoting rescues and misunderstood breeds.
“Our tear-jerkers do best right now,” Punski said.
They occasionally have real-life dog influencers on, like Tucker the Golden Retriever, who they cross-promote with. They’re also looking to make longer videos, 10 to 20 minutes, and imagine the dogs one day starring in their own TV series on a platform like Netflix.
“We’re very confident,” Punski said.
DogPack
The DogPack guys use Google Veo 3 to make the videos. They feed it a prompt containing a script and a step-by-step description of the action. They usually run a few hundred words. Veo can only create videos lasting up to eight seconds, so producing the pod’s episodes, which sometimes last a couple of minutes, involves creating several short videos and stitching them together using an editing tool.
Independent online creators have generally not faced the same level of cultural stigma that has hindered AI use in Hollywood, where unions have battled for limitations on how studios can use the tech. Still, some creators share Hollywood’s skepticism about AI. Notably, top YouTuber MrBeast recently voiced concerns that it’ll become hard for fellow creators to compete with AI-generated content.
Punski emphasized that while DogPack uses AI in the production process, the concept and lines come from real, dog-loving people.
“Our talking dogs and podcast worlds are clearly fantastical, created to entertain, not mislead,” he said. “AI helps us bring those imaginative ideas to life faster and at scale, while we stay in full control of the tone, authenticity, and warmth that define DogPack.”
The public has mixed attitudes toward AI, with concerns about its impact on human abilities and creativity. An October YouGov survey found most people were OK with AI being used to translate subtitles into other languages (64% for), but 65% against AI characters replacing human actors (65% against). The survey didn’t ask about talking AI dogs. There’s probably a low risk of DogPack fooling anyone — though you never know.
“Sometimes people in the comments start to believe they’re real,” Punski said. “They say, ‘What do you mean, they’re AI?’ They say, ‘I never thought I’d cry about an AI dog.'”
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