AI Shook Hollywood: Chaos & Future 🎬💥

AI’s Initial Foray into Hollywood: Hype vs. Reality
For years, AI has been utilized in Hollywood primarily for post-production tasks like de-aging and green screen removal. Despite substantial investment, no gen-AI project to date has successfully justified the considerable hype surrounding it. This nascent collaboration between Hollywood and AI initially faced challenges, with major studios – including Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery – positioning themselves to pursue legal action against AI firms due to concerns that their video generation models were trained on copyrighted intellectual property. Instead of aggressively suppressing AI development, however, some of Hollywood’s most influential companies chose to forge partnerships with AI providers.

Fragmentation and Declining Quality in the AI Landscape
Recent developments in the generative AI space suggest a growing trend toward increased fragmentation and a decline in quality. While headlines throughout the year were largely shaped by larger players such as Google and OpenAI, a number of smaller startups actively sought a foothold in the entertainment industry. One notable example is Asteria, a venture founded by Natasha Lyonne, which focused on developing film projects utilizing video generation models engineered with an emphasis on ethical considerations. Simultaneously, startups like Showrunner—an Amazon-backed platform—allowed subscribers to create animated “shows” from just a few descriptive sentences inputted through Discord. These newer companies were driven by a desire to validate the potential of their flavor of generative AI to accelerate film and television development while simultaneously reducing production costs.

Disney’s Bold Bet on Sora and AI-Generated Characters
In December, Disney entered into a three-year, billion-dollar licensing agreement with OpenAI, granting Sora users the ability to create AI videos featuring over 200 characters from Star Wars, Marvel, and other franchises. This significant investment demonstrated a willingness to actively engage with the technology and explore its creative potential within established intellectual property.

Netflix and Amazon’s Exploratory Ventures and Their Limitations
Netflix followed suit, boldly embracing generative AI after utilizing the technology to produce special effects for one of its original series. The streamer subsequently published guidelines for its partners, emphasizing cost savings in visual effects work as a primary motivation for supporting the trend. Amazon soon joined the foray, releasing multiple Japanese anime series that suffered from poorly localized dubbing, demonstrating the current shortcomings of AI-driven translation – lacking human translators and voice actors.

Public Disapproval and the Future of AI in Entertainment
Recent missteps, including the swift removal of an AI-dubbed series and a corresponding recap feature, suggested that some segments of the entertainment industry were increasingly willing to experiment with generative AI “entertainment,” despite widespread public disapproval. The rapid response followed numerous instances, such as the deployment of AI “actress” Tilly Norwood, which further fueled concerns about the industry’s willingness to promote this technology. Consequently, the industry’s continued experimentation raises the possibility of further, similarly ill-received attempts at incorporating AI-generated content, leaving many viewers deeply unimpressed and apprehensive.