AI video company Runwway has announced a partnership with Lionsgate that will see a custom video model trained on the Hollywood studio’s extensive catalog.
Lionsgate has distributed The Hunger Games, John Wick, The Twilight Saga, and Saw franchises among many others which all be available to Runway.
This access to legally clear training data is unusual for generative AI companies which typically don’t ask permission from copyright holders when using content to train models.
“Runway is a visionary, best-in-class partner who will help us utilize AI to develop cutting edge, capital efficient content creation opportunities,” says Lionsgate Vice Chair Michael Burns. “Several of our filmmakers are already excited about its potential applications to their pre-production and post-production process. We view AI as a great tool for augmenting, enhancing, and supplementing our current operations.”
“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,” adds Runway co-founder and CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela. “Lionsgate has an incredible creative team and a clear vision for how AI can help their work — we’re excited to help bring their ideas to life.”
Hollywood and Generative AI
Runway and Lionsgate’s announcement comes just one day after California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two bills into law that will protect actors and performers from unauthorized AI clones. The laws aim to protect actors from AI replicas of their likeness or voice being used without their consent.
News of the deal hasn’t gone down well on social media with filmmakers expressing their horror at the arrangement.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a grosser string of words than: ‘to develop cutting-edge, capital-efficient content creation opportunities,” writes Joe Russo on X, per Ars Technica.
“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,” adds film concept artist Reid Southen.