Two Singapore AI Short Films Premiere on National Day, Igniting 'AI Slop' Debate

Two Singapore-based AI studios released generative-media short films on National Day (August 9): Edenstone's "Bersama Majulah," a zombie-outbreak story set during a fictional National Day Parade, and FizzDragon's "Trace Project," an hour-long sci-fi film about Singapore's first astronaut on Mars. Both drew immediate backlash across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, with viewers labelling them "AI slop" and criticising lifeless characters, poor dialogue, and American accents in a locally set story.

The creators pushed back. FizzDragon CEO Pax Chen framed "Trace Project" as an experiment and "an invitation for people to decide what they think of it," while "Bersama Majulah" showrunner Joel Boh acknowledged viewer fatigue around AI-generated content. The episode crystallises a widening cultural fault line: as AI studios move from tools to full production pipelines, audiences and critics are actively debating where human direction ends and algorithmic output begins.