Google set to invest $75 million in A24 as part of AI research project
Google is set to invest $75million into A24, the rapidly growing film studio responsible for major box office hits, as part of an AI research project.
The move marks the pinnacle of a changing of the tides across the movie-making landscape, with AI being both embraced and equally lambasted throughout the industry.
However, for Google, it marks the first time that it has struck up a partnership with a film studio, with A24 currently being one of the hottest entities on the market, off the back of successes like Backrooms and Marty Supreme, to name a few.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is investing on behalf of its AI acquisition DeepMind, and hopes the deal with A24 will focus on exploring methods of movie production and distribution.
Notably, although the deal does not allow Google to work with A24’s catalogue of film and TV productions, it does grant them access to its roster of Hollywood talent, such as actors and directors. It is not clear if all of them will agree to the new conditions, with Backrooms director Kane Parsons saying only last week that AI is “cultural rot”.
It comes as a further step in A24’s existing use of AI, with a team at the company named A24 Labs already using the technology to streamline and flag potential problems in the storyboarding process.
Scott Belsky, who oversees technology and innovation for the film studio, said the products of the new deal “won’t look anything like the prompted generation type of AI that people feel uncomfortable with,” while also noting, “We think there are better uses that preserve creative control and support risk-taking.”
Regardless, AI has become a massive area of contention in the film industry, with the fight against it being one of the cornerstone reasons for the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.
Previous AI deals for other film studios have also not gone well, with Disney attracting huge controversy over its partnership with OpenAI last year, before suddenly ending the deal in March.
As far as A24 is concerned, it is still unclear how the new AI deal with Google’s DeepMind will affect its upcoming releases, which include the Anthony Bourdain biopic Tony and the drama Primetime, starring Robert Pattinson and Phoebe Bridgers.
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