Earlier this year, OpenAI and other artificial intelligence companies wooed Hollywood studios with the futuristic promise of AI tools that they said could help make the business of creating movies and television shows faster, easier and cheaper.
What the tech companies wanted was access to troves of footage and intellectual property from series and films that they could use to train and support their complex models. It’s the kind of thing AI technology needs to feed off of in order to create stuff, like videos and script notes.
So far though, despite all the hype and anticipation, not much has come of those talks.
The most prominent partnership was one announced last month between New York-based AI startup Runway and “John Wick” and “Hunger Games” studio Lionsgate . Under that deal, Runway will create a new AI model for Lionsgate to help with behind-the-scenes processes such as storyboarding.
But none of the major studios have announced similar partnerships, and they’re not expected to until 2025, said people familiar with the talks who were not authorized to comment.
Advertisement
There are many reasons for the delay. AI is a complicated landscape where regulations and legal questions surrounding the technology are still evolving. Plus, there’s some skepticism over whether audiences would accept films made primarily with AI tools. There are questions over how studio libraries should be valued for AI purposes and concerns about protecting intellectual property.
Plus, AI is highly controversial in the entertainment industry, where there’s widespread mistrust of the technology companies given their more “Wild West” attitude about intellectual property. The mere mention of AI is triggering to many in the business, who fear that text-to-image and video tools will be used to eliminate jobs.
The Lionsgate-Runway deal, for example, set off a wave of concern among some creatives, many of whom quickly responded to the announcement by calling up their agents. The Directors Guild of America said it has reached out to Lionsgate and plans to meet with the company “soon.”The threat of AI was one of the key concerns raised by actors and writers last year when they went on strike for months. They […]
AI is supposed to be Hollywood’s next big thing. What’s taking so long?
