r/kickstarter • u/El-Alangute • 2d ago

Self-Promotion Building Intelligence: a pixel-art documentary about the history of AI, free on YouTube when it's done

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alanragu/ai-uncovered-how-we-got-to-artificial-intelligence
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u/El-Alangute 2d ago edited 1d ago

I'm making this documentary on my own: research, writing, narration, editing, and animation. It follows the history of AI from the first artificial neurons and Rosenblatt's Perceptron through symbolic AI, backpropagation, and the Transformer behind today's LLMs, told mostly in pixel art.

The finished film will be free on YouTube at the end of November 2026, so the campaign funds the production, not access to the film. Happy to answer questions about running a campaign for a free project.

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u/CouchLegume 2d ago

I like the pixel art - but to be honest the art style doesn’t quite fit a documentary.

You also don’t tell us who you are or why we should care about this project. Are you a YouTuber? Film student? Have you made documentaries in the past? Are you a software engineer, a historian? What’s driving you to do this?

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u/El-Alangute 2d ago

Thanks for the question! And I understand your opinion about pixel art. I actually debated that choice myself. The thing is, my background is in mechatronics engineering, with a specialization in neural networks. I was familiar with the technical side of AI, but as I researched and read more about its history, I found it fascinating and wanted to share it.
I think understanding that history helps make sense of more recent events. A lot of us feel somewhat confused about what’s happening with AI, and I thought a documentary could help put things into perspective.
I chose pixel art to make the experience a little more immersive, especially when recreating situations that were never filmed. Recreating those scenes in other styles would be very expensive for an independent project that I’m making entirely on my own. I took some inspiration from certain scenes in the movie Tetris, and I thought it could be an interesting approach. Of course, the pixel art will be accompanied by narration and other elements.

My main goal is to create an accessible summary of a complex subject that’s affecting all our lives and will shape the future, for better or worse.

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u/CouchLegume 2d ago

Maybe make a couple of shorts first and post them
on YouTube, then you can build an audience and go for the larger documentary?

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u/El-Alangute 2d ago

Yeah I guess I’ll try that way. Thanks 🙏