Lionsgate is getting into the generative AI business. The movie studio behind box office smashes like John Wick, The Hunger Games and Twilight has signed a deal with Runway, an AI video startup, to give the company access to its catalog of movies and shows. In return, Runway is building a custom AI model for Lionsgate, the Wall Street Journal reports today.
This is a first-of-its-kind deal for Runway, marking a new era for the film studio. Lionsgate told The WSJ that it plans to use the new tech to help with editing and production processes, like storyboarding -- a planning process where creators lay out specific scenes -- and potentially CGI action scenes. However, Runway's tools aren't ready yet to produce images and video for TV and movies, its CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela said. Runway hopes to have "refined" creator tools ready in the next 12 months.
AI was one of the central concerns during summer 2023's historic concurrent strikes from the Writers Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Directors Guild of America. The new deals the unions inked set a foundation for protections surrounding AI.
But as AI tech has evolved since last summer, so have some artists' concerns over generative AI. Earlier this year, Runway AI and Stable Diffusion, which makes the models behind image generators like Midjourney, were sued by a group of visual artists alleging that their AI models infringe on their copyrights. The case is ongoing.