It’s difficult not to feel the domino effect when large changes happen. One such change came Wednesday when Lionsgate — the studio behind John Wick, The Hunger Games, AND Dusk franchises — announced it has teamed up with AI company Runway in a “first-of-its-kind partnership” that will give the AI company access to the studio’s archives to create a custom AI tool for pre- and post-production on films and TV shows.
According to Runway, the upcoming tool will “help Lionsgate Studios, its filmmakers, directors and other creative talent develop their work” and “generate videos that can be further enhanced using Runway’s suite of curated tools.” press release announcing the deal.
If that sounds like it might interest those who have been watching AI’s impact on original work, it did. A few hours after The Wall Street Journal revealed this storywriter and director Justine Bateman, who was vocally critical AI during the Hollywood strikes last year, posted on X that sounded almost like a warning: “Over a year ago I told you I bet studios are NOT sending lawyers to #AI companies because of their model cheating [sic] their copyrighted movies because they wanted their own versions. There you have it.”
If anything, the up-to-date agreement could serve as a test of the AI protections that unions like the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) won in contract negotiations with studios last year. securitystudios must get consent from actors before creating a digital replica of them. Since Lionsgate and Runway say the tool will be used solely for pre- and post-production work, it falls within the scope of the agreement, says Matthew Sag, a professor of law and AI at Emory University.
“It seems like a significant event, but the film industry has been using all kinds of technology and automation for years,” Sag says. “So you could see it as a natural evolution. The difference is that now we’re seeing more of the things we thought were creative and artistic being automated.”
The announcement came a day after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation aimed at protecting actors from having their work cloned without consent. Set to go into effect next year, Newsome’s move comes at a time when video game workers, particularly voice actors and motion caption actors, are on strike, in part over AI protections.
“We are still in uncharted territory when it comes to how artificial intelligence and digital media are changing the entertainment industry,” California Gov. in the statement“This legislation ensures the industry can continue to thrive while strengthening protections for workers and how their likenesses can or cannot be used.”
Even if the new tools don’t affect the work of actors and other performers, it’s hard not to wonder what impact the new generative AI tools could have on those working in pre- and post-production. According to the WSJ report, Lionsgate initially plans to use the custom Runway tool for things like storyboarding. Eventually, the studio plans to use it to create visual effects for the big screen. According to Saga, “it’s impossible to say with any certainty which productivity tools will create jobs and which ones will destroy them,” but it seems possible that these tools could have an impact on jobs.
But according to Runway CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela, they won’t. “Our fundamental belief is that AI, like any powerful tool, can significantly accelerate progress on creative challenges,” Valenzuela says. “It does this by helping solve specific tasks, not by replacing entire works. Artists always control their tools.”
Like Valenzuela, Lionsgate Vice Chairman Michael Burns sees AI as a boon to filmmaking that will aid the studio “develop innovative, capital-efficient content creation capabilities,” he said in a statement. statementnoting that several Lionsgate filmmakers were excited about the up-to-date tools, but wouldn’t name which ones. “We see AI as a great tool to extend, enhance and complement our current operations.” It’s unclear what it will do with their future operations.