Is this Hollywood's moment of AI reckoning?
For some in Hollywood, as Silicon Valley's AI models have become impossible to ignore, it's better to have a seat at the table as these new technologies emerge, rather than sitting back and letting the tech titans take full control.
This, at least, is the impetus behind Asteria, the generative AI studio cofounded by the filmmaking couple of Bryn Mooser and Natasha Lyonne, who promote their company as using 'ethical' AI. Lyonne has justified her embrace of the technology by explaining: 'It's better to get your hands dirty than pretend it's not happening.' The company has faced some backlash, both because Lyonne (tastelessly, her detractors would argue) claimed the late David Lynch had endorsed AI, and because its flagship model is proprietary—meaning we have no way to verify that it is indeed trained only on licensed material (as Lyonne and co. say it is).
Meanwhile, James Cameron is on Stability AI's board, and has expressed his hope for using AI to make blockbuster filmmaking cheaper. Jason Blum's Blumhouse Productions has partnered with Meta for AI testing and chatbots. Lionsgate signed a deal with Runway, an AI startup valued at $3 billion, to let the company train its model on the studio's 20,000+ films and TV series; Runway also signed a deal with AMC.
This embrace of AI, though, puts the James Camerons and Natasha Lyonnes of the world at odds with industry peers who are opting to push back on these would-be robot overlords before they take over.
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