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Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Netflix Co-Founder Reed Hastings Gives $50M To Bowdoin College For AI Initiative
Netflix co-founder and executive chairman Reed Hastings has given $50 million to his alma mater, Bowdoin College in Maine, in support of a new initiative centered on AI. The gift, which is the largest in Bowdoin's history, will enable the school to hire 10 new faculty members in a range of disciplines. It will help current faculty members looking to incorporate AI in their teaching, research, and artistic work and also support conversations about AI's uses and challenges, including workshops, symposia, and support for student research. More from Deadline David Cronenberg Thinks 'The Brutalist's AI Controversy Was A Smear Campaign: "Just A Part Of Moviemaking" Nvidia CEO Chats Up Star Wars-Inspired Droid As Chip Maker Partners With Disney, Google And Lays Out The AI Revolution 'Matrix' Co-Creator & Hundreds Of Hollywood A-Listers Want To Stop AI Obliterating Copyright Laws; Lilly Wachowski, Paul McCartney, Ava DuVernay, Cate Blanchett, Alfonso Cuarón + More Write White House 'This donation seeks to advance Bowdoin's mission of cultivating wisdom for the common good by deepening the college's engagement with one of humanity's most transformative developments: artificial intelligence,' Hastings said in a press release. 'We aim to develop leaders who can be 'at home' in both the present and future technological landscape.' Hastings graduated from Bowdoin in 1983 and went on to earn a Master's degree in artificial intelligence from Stanford before embarking on his career in technology. Netflix was founded in 1997. Hastings stepped down as Co-CEO of Netflix in 2023. Bowdoin president Safa Zaki, whose research focuses on building and testing computational models of mind, said the gift from Hastings will help the college infuse humanity into the study and application of AI. 'Bowdoin is ideally positioned to meet the challenges and opportunities of AI,' she said. 'Our deep commitment to the liberal arts and the common good position us to think together about what we are going to value in human cognition, and what we will want our AI systems to do – or not do – going forward in service to humanity.' In an interview with the New York Times, Hastings said he remains optimistic about the positive impact AI can have, but the aim of the gift is to bolster the study of all of the implications of the technology. 'I'm an extreme techno-optimist and view most of human progress as technology progress on one side and moral-ethical systems on the other side,' Hastings said. 'The tech progress is moving ahead very nicely. Our moral-ethical system improvements need some bolstering.' Best of Deadline How To Watch 'Wicked: Part One': Is The Film Streaming Yet? All The Songs In 'Severance' Season 2: From The Who To Ella Fitzgerald 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery
Yahoo
23-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
David Cronenberg Thinks ‘The Brutalist's AI Controversy Was A Smear Campaign: 'Just A Part Of Moviemaking'
Following controversy around The Brutalist's usage of AI, David Cronenberg is coming to the Best Picture Oscar nominee's defense. During a conversation with longtime collaborator Howard Shore at the London Soundtrack Festival, the director theorized there was a 'campaign against' the Brady Corbet-helmed film, noting that AI is used 'all the time' in filmmaking. More from Deadline 'The Brutalist' Editor Says Filmmakers Used AI Tools To Enhance Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones' Hungarian Dialogue 'The Brutalist' Director Brady Corbet Says Use Of AI In Post Was For 'Hungarian Language Dialogue Editing Only;' Filmmaker Asserts Adrien Brody & Felicity Jones' 'Performances Are Completely Their Own' Nvidia CEO Chats Up Star Wars-Inspired Droid As Chip Maker Partners With Disney, Google And Lays Out The AI Revolution 'I must confess, there was a scandal [with] The Brutalist,' said Cronenberg, according to multiple outlets. 'There was a discussion about Adrien Brody… but apparently they used artificial intelligence to improve his accent. I think it was a campaign against The Brutalist by some other Oscar nominees. It's very much a Harvey Weinstein kind of thing, though he wasn't around.' Cronenberg explained that directors 'mess with actors' voices all the time,' citing John Lone's performance in his 1993 film M. Butterfly. 'When he was being this character, this singer, I raised the pitch of his voice and when he's revealed as a man, I lowered to his natural voice,' he said. 'This is just a part of moviemaking.' The Brutalist editor Dávid Jancsó previously revealed that AI tools from Ukrainian company Respeecher were used in the film to enhance actors' Hungarian dialogue. As a native Hungarian speaker, he noted that the dialect is 'one of the most difficult languages to learn to pronounce.' 'It is controversial in the industry to talk about AI, but it shouldn't be,' Jancsó told Red Shark News. 'We should be having a very open discussion about what tools AI can provide us with. There's nothing in the film using AI that hasn't been done before. It just makes the process a lot faster. We use AI to create these tiny little details that we didn't have the money or the time to shoot.' Corbet later said in a response shared with Deadline: 'Adrien and Felicity's performances are completely their own. They worked for months with dialect coach Tanera Marshall to perfect their accents. Innovative Respeecher technology was used in Hungarian language dialogue editing only, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy. No English language was changed. This was a manual process, done by our sound team and Respeecher in post-production. The aim was to preserve the authenticity of Adrien and Felicity's performances in another language, not to replace or alter them and done with the utmost respect for the craft.' Best of Deadline How To Watch 'Wicked: Part One': Is The Film Streaming Yet? All The Songs In 'Severance' Season 2: From The Who To Ella Fitzgerald 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery
