Earlier this week, artificial intelligence video synthesis firm Runway AI, Inc. and Lionsgate Entertainment Corporation announced a partnership this week to create a new AI model trained on Lionsgate's film and TV library. The deal will allow Runway to legally access the library as training data and will also reportedly provide Lionsgate with tools to enhance content creation while potentially reducing production costs.
Lionsgate has apparently decided that
AI is a way to boost efficiency in content production. Michael Burns,
Lionsgate's vice chair, stated in a press release that AI could help develop
"cutting edge, capital efficient content creation opportunities." He
added that some filmmakers have shown enthusiasm about potential applications
in pre-production and post-production processes. Runway plans to develop a
custom AI model using Lionsgate's proprietary content portfolio. The model will
be exclusive to Lionsgate Studios, allowing filmmakers, directors, and creative
staff to augment their work. While specifics remain unclear, the partnership
marks the first major collaboration between Runway and a Hollywood studio.
As Runway co-founder and CEO Cristóbal
Valenzuela stated in its press release: "We’re committed to giving
artists, creators and studios the best and most powerful tools to augment their
workflows and enable new ways of bringing their stories to life … the history
of art is the history of technology and these new models are part of our
continuous efforts to build transformative mediums for artistic and creative
expression; the best stories are yet to be told."
As everyone now knows, generative AI
models are master imitators, and video synthesis models like Runway's latest
Gen-3 Alpha are no exception. The companies that create them must amass a great
deal of existing video (and still images) as samples to analyze, allowing the
resulting AI models to re-synthesize that information into new video
generations, guided by text descriptions called prompts. The problem for the AI
world is that wherever that training data is lacking, it can result in unusual
generations. Until recently, AI companies have gotten into legal trouble for
scraping vast quantities of media without permission. In fact, Runway is
currently the defendant in a class-action lawsuit that alleges copyright
infringement for using video data obtained without permission to train its video
synthesis models. While companies like OpenAI have claimed this scraping
process is "fair use," US courts have not yet definitively ruled on
the practice. There are numerous pending lawsuits concerning AI as it applies to music and sound recordings as well as film. With other potential legal challenges ahead, it makes sense from
Runway's perspective to reach out and sign deals for training data that is
completely in the clear. Even if the training data becomes fully legal and
licensed, different elements of the entertainment industry view generative AI
on a spectrum that seems to range between fascination and horror. The
technology's ability to rapidly create images and video based on prompts may
attract studios looking to streamline production. However, it raises polarizing
concerns among unions about job security, actors and musicians about likeness
misuse and ethics, and studios about legal implications.
As evidenced by the statements so
far, news of the deal has not been received kindly among vocal AI critics found
on social media. On X, filmmaker and AI critic Joe Russo wrote, "I don’t
think I’ve ever seen a grosser string of words than: 'to develop cutting-edge,
capital-efficient content creation opportunities'” and film concept artist Reid
Southen shared a similar negative take on X: "I wonder how the directors
and actors of their films feel about having their work fed into the AI to make
a proprietary model. As an artist on The Hunger Games? I'm pissed. This is the
first step in trying to replace artists and filmmakers."
It's a fear that we will likely hear more about in the future as AI video synthesis technology grows more capable, and potentially becomes adopted as a standard filmmaking tool. AI can be an excellent tool for creation, but it can also be used as a weapon. As studios explore AI applications despite legal uncertainties and labor concerns, partnerships like the Lionsgate-Runway deal may shape the future of content creation in Hollywood.
Wallace Collins is an entertainment
lawyer and intellectual property attorney based in New York with over 30 years’
experience in music, film, television and emerging technology, and he handles
many current digital media matters including issues that arise with AI. He was a
songwriter and recording artist for Epic Records before receiving his law
degree from Fordham Law School. Website: http://www.wallacecollins.com
