Can you shoot a Cannes-level ad with no cameras, a fraction of the budget and a 99% lower carbon footprint? That’s exactly what Kent Boswell and Marcus Tesoriero are doing with aiCandy, one of the first AI film production studios built for brands and agencies.

In this episode of Digital Nexus, we unpack how they’re turning “impossible” ideas from old agency bottom drawers into fully realised films – including a United Nations climate piece set to Mad World by Gary Jules, crafted from real sea-level data across cities like Tokyo, Mumbai, New York and Amsterdam.

Kent and Marcus share the origin story of aiCandy (hatched over beers in Cannes as AI talks took over the festival), the moment Google’s Vo3 lip-sync breakthrough made it “officially ready”, and why they’ve gone all-in on AI film as Australia’s first dedicated AI production studio for the commercial and marketing space.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How aiCandy was born
From Cannes Lions chats about “Will Smith eating spaghetti” to spotting the moment AI film crossed from joke to production-ready – and why they decided it was “jump on the train or get left behind.”

What an AI film production actually looks like
Same brief, strategy and creative process as a top-tier production company – scripts, treatments, casting, locations, storyboards, sound mix and grade – just no physical cameras.

Turning shrinking budgets into “impossible” ideas
Why high quality expectations keep rising while TVC budgets drop from $200k+ down, and how AI lets them turn a “someone jogging in Sydney” script into a Super Bowl-level spot across the Himalayas with a full cast, zero rollover fees and no weather delays.

The UN ‘Mad World’ climate film – from bottom drawer to global story
How a shelved idea became a career highlight: using real climate data to show future sea-level rise in multiple cities, layering it with Mad World, and getting Gary Jules to gift them the track 36 hours after they reached out.

AI film vs traditional production: the carbon myth
The numbers behind the “AI is bad for the planet” headline: a traditional 30-second TVC can create ~40 tonnes of CO₂ (about 16 hot-air balloons), while an AI-produced spot of the same length comes in around 50 kilograms – roughly 2% of one balloon.

Why craft still matters more than prompts
How decades in film, VFX and award-winning creative direction let them spot the tiny details (like a frame-off lip-sync or a six-fingered hand) that separate “AI meme” from world-class work, and why the tool is nothing without expert taste.

What changes for juniors, crew and the next wave of talent
How roles are shifting rather than disappearing, and why juniors still need reps – just with new tools, new workflows and fewer red-eye shoots.

Where AI film is headed next
Why even the people building this stuff hesitate to predict five years out, and how aiCandy is planning to keep raising its own bar after a debut UN project and six more films already in production across comedy, drama and sci-fi.

Support the show

Other Links
🎙️our podcast links here: https://digitalnexuspodcast.com/
👤Chris on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcsinclair/
👤Mark on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmonfort/
👤 Mark on Twitter - https://twitter.com/captdefi

SHOWNOTE LINKS
🔗 SIKE - https://sike.ai/
🌐Digital Village - https://digitalvillage.network/
🌐NotCentralised - https://www.notcentralised.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalNexusPodcast
X (twitter): @DigitalNexus

In this episode of Digital Nexus, Chris and Mark are joined by Dr Tim Rayner — AI Philosopher, author of Hacker Culture and the New Rules of Innovation, and educator at UTS Business School — to unpack how AI can move from “smart autocomplete” to genuine teammates that help people think better, learn faster and build braver.

If you’re a founder, product lead, educator or operator trying to make sense of AI beyond the hype cycle, this one goes deep into the human side of intelligent systems: judgment, values, learning, and what it means to flourish in an automated economy.

Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro: meet AI philosopher Tim Rayner & set up the human + AI theme
00:41 – AI pilots with zero ROI, job automation & why “shadow AI” is everywhere
01:59 – Human practical wisdom vs machine “intelligence” & why education needs to change
03:01 – Exams, “cheating” with ChatGPT & shifting to a build-first mindset
05:01 – Rethinking business models so AI isn’t just a bolt-on tool
10:00 – Using first principles to spot what’s broken & where AI can help
15:00 – Life as a journey of discovery, learning and updating your story
20:01 – Philosophy as a toolkit for uncertainty and AI-driven change
25:00 – Tim’s path: from researcher to AI educator and innovation partner for leaders
30:00 – Human + AI superteams, synthetic intelligence & where the “magic” happens
35:01 – Training subject-matter experts, managers & execs to act as AI leads
40:02 – Why many leaders are naive about AI and why practical wisdom matters
45:00 – Historical parallels: electricity, revolutions and what this AI moment signals
50:01 – Helping people bring their “magic” into work & unlock grassroots innovation
56:01 – Custom GPTs, Typing Minds & teaching people to build useful agents
57:00 – How to join Tim’s AI programs, why 2026 will be a big AI year & closing remarks

Check out:

Superesque: https://superesque.com/
Tim Rayner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-rayner-superesque/

In this episode you’ll learn:

Why universities are being forced to rethink the traditional degree
How one business school is restructuring its graduate programs around AI, project-based learning and “build-first” mindsets, and what that signals for employers and students.

From tools to teammates:
What separates “AI as a fast calculator” from “AI as a collaborator”, and how to frame agent workflows so they support, rather than replace, human judgment.

Hacker culture and innovation inside big organisations
Tim’s take on the “hidden hackers” in every company, and how leaders can give them space, scaffolding and safety to run meaningful experiments instead of gimmicky pilots.

Cognitive offloading vs. cognitive laziness
When it is smart to lean on AI for heavy lifting — and where you need to keep humans in the loop so your team doesn’t atrophy its own thinking.

Philosophy as a practical AI skill
How ideas from Socrates and modern ethics show up in real product decisions: from incentives and power, to who benefits, who’s left out, and how you decide what “good” looks like.

Future

Support the show

Other Links
🎙️our podcast links here: https://digitalnexuspodcast.com/
👤Chris on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcsinclair/
👤Mark on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmonfort/
👤 Mark on Twitter - https://twitter.com/captdefi

SHOWNOTE LINKS
🔗 SIKE - https://sike.ai/
🌐Digital Village - https://digitalvillage.network/
🌐NotCentralised - https://www.notcentralised.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalNexusPodcast
X (twitter): @DigitalNexus

Can AI make game dev truly “prompt to play”?
Jack Wakem (Founder, Tempest AI) breaks down how his team is building “Lovable for games” — a consumer platform where anyone can prompt, iterate, and ship, including a timeline that lets you scrub your build like a YouTube video.

Tempest started as an AI-native RPG engine (RAG, context engineering, custom schemas) and evolved into a fast, consumer game-creation workflow. We dig into the hard parts (state, memory, assets), product pivots, and what Jack learned dropping out, working night shifts, and building in public with Build Club (Annie Liao).

What you’ll learn

Why “AI-native games” are hard (context tracking, long-running state) and the pragmatic path that worked.
How Tempest’s timeline lets creators jump to any checkpoint, edit, and keep playing, slashing iteration time.
Where AI fits today in game development vs. live asset generation (and what’s still rough).
“Lovable for games”: lowering the barrier so non-devs can prompt changes directly in-game.
Market context: gaming + AI is ~USD $1.5–2B today with projections to “tens of billions” by 2029.
Founder mindset: give yourself a focused year, keep lights on with a job, compress learning through reps.

Timestamps:
00:00 – Gaming is huge; meet Jack (Tempest AI)
03:02 – Farm kid to game dev: early life
04:19 – First console memories (Nintendo DS, strict screen time)
07:00 – Designing engaging games; making content to learn
08:05 – Indie projects, clients, and the post-school fork in the road
12:00 – De-risking vs passion; finance path vs gaming; GPT-3 moment
16:03 – Dropping out; night jobs while building Tempest
17:26 – Founder psychology: knowledge, ego, experience
20:20 – Community fuel: Annie Liao & Build Club
24:00 – Tempest focus + the gaming-AI market snapshot
25:18 – Vision: AI-native “never-ending” games (and the hard bits)
28:04 – Context engineering; gen-AI in the dev pipeline
30:00 – What Tempest is: “Lovable for games” (consumer prompt UX)
31:18 – The slow iteration problem in game dev
32:07 – Coding agent + timeline scrubber (edit your game like a video)
33:28 – Building with users: sit-with testing to dashboards
35:10 – Will AI reduce or amplify creativity?
38:05 – The next 5 years: more personal, more experimental games
39:31 – Fundraising: where the round is at
40:08 – How they raised: two years of public building & updates
42:00 – Wrap and where to follow Tempest

Guest
Jack Wakem — Founder, Tempest AI.
Rural NSW origin story → Uni (Finance + CS) → drops out, works nights (pest control/industrial cleaning) while building Tempest.

About Tempest AI
Started by prototyping endless, AI-driven RPGs with custom context schemas and an in-house engine to give LLMs reliable world state. Pivoted ~3 months ago into a consumer game-creation platform with a friction-free UX and a unique timeline editor.

Tempest website: https://alpha.tempestengine.ai/
Jack Wakem: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-wakem-ab7170230/

Quote to remember
“You only lose when you quit… keep working at one thing long enough and compounding kicks in.”

Join the convers

Support the show

Other Links
🎙️our podcast links here: https://digitalnexuspodcast.com/
👤Chris on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcsinclair/
👤Mark on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmonfort/
👤 Mark on Twitter - https://twitter.com/captdefi

SHOWNOTE LINKS
🔗 SIKE - https://sike.ai/
🌐Digital Village - https://digitalvillage.network/
🌐NotCentralised - https://www.notcentralised.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalNexusPodcast
X (twitter): @DigitalNexus