Epic 2014 is a short science-fiction film that imagines the media landscape merging into a personalized, computer-generated news service. It is a fictional history of 'Googlezon' and the decline of traditional newspapers.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN returns to it as an uncannily prescient prediction of tech consolidation and AI-written, personalized news.
“Rewatching it now gives me this uncanny feeling.”HN comment, 2026
Accurate prediction of AI-written news and newspaper copyright suit
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this was predicted in the very influential epic 2014 video in 02004 this video (the original is flash and has thus been consigned to the memory hole, so we are left with this poor-quality conversion) 36": 'however, the press as you know it has ceased to exist' 40": '20th-century news organizations are an afterthought; a lonely remnant of a not-too-distant past' 2'11": 'also in 2002, google launches google news, a news portal. news organizations cry foul. google news is edited entirely by computers' 5'13": 'the news wars of 2010 are notable for the fact that no actual news organizations take part. googlezon finally checkmates microsoft with a feature the software giant cannot match: using a new algorithm, googlezon's computers construct new stories, dynamically stripping sentences and facts from all content sources, and recombining them. the computer writes a new story for every user' 5'55": 'in 2011 the slumbering fourth estate awakes to make its first and final stand. the new york times company sues googlezon, claiming that the company's fact-stripping robots are a violation of copyright law. the case goes all the way to the supreme court' they didn't get the details exactly right, but overall the accuracy is astounding however, that may be a hyperstition artifact in this timeline link (i thought epic 2014 might be the only flash video to hae a wikipedia article about it, but then i looked and found five others)
RecommendsduckmysickApr 2026
“Rewatching it now gives me this uncanny feeling.”
Speculative video on personalized computer-written news
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Does anyone else remember Epic 2014? It was a video made years ago that speculated about the future of the internet and media, with the end game being personalized news written by a computer. The timeline is off but the brand names are mostly the usual suspects. Rewatching it now gives me this uncanny feeling. this videolink
Cites itpgroteJan 2021
“there was a prescient video where there turned out to be only 4 tech companies left”
Prescient video predicting a few tech companies dominating
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I wish I could find it, but 10 years ago, probably longer now, there was a prescient video where there turned out to be only 4 tech companies left. Something like amazgooglesoft or something. The narrator had a deep voice and I think it was funded by a media company. Edit: Found it through the keywords, "old prediction video where amazon microsoft google buy everything" lol this video
Cites itkragenJun 2024
“this was predicted in epic 2014 as a product of googlezon in 2010”
this was predicted in epic 2014 as a product of googlezon in 2010 this video > Googlezon finally checkmates Microsoft with a feature the software giant cannot match. Using a new algorithm, Googlezon's computers construct news stories, dynamically stripping sentences and facts from all content sources, and recombining them. The computer writes a new story for every user. it took a bit longer than we thought it would in 02004
