Lionsgate has signed a deal with artificial intelligence research firm Runway that will give it access to the company’s vast library of film and television content to train a new generative model.
According to the The Wall Street JournalThe model will fit into Lionsgate’s portfolio of products, which includes blockbuster franchises such as John Wick, Saw and The Hunger Games. The goal is to help filmmakers and other creatives “improve their work” through the use of AI.
“Runway is a visionary and best-in-class partner that will help us leverage AI to develop cutting-edge, capital-efficient content creation opportunities,” said Michael Burns, Vice President, Lionsgate. “A number of our filmmakers are already excited about its potential applications in their pre- and post-production processes. We see AI as a great tool to augment, enhance and complement our current operations.”
Burns believes the deal will save Lionsgate “millions and millions of dollars.”
The technology will be used to help creators storyboard a project before using it for background sets and special effects.
Runway hosts an annual AI film festival in both Los Angeles and New York City.
The company is in the middle of legal problems after a group of visual artists claimed that its image-generating system infringed their copyright.
The news comes after a troubled summer for Lionsgate, which suffered a string of underperforming films at the box office. There were disappointing results for the company’s The Crow remake, Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and the video game adaptation Borderlands, with the latter film estimated to lose Lionsgate between $20-30 million. Last weekend also saw the release of action comedy The Killer’s Game with just $2.6 million from a $30 million budget.
The announcement also comes the day after California Governor Gavin Newsom, signed two bills to restrict the use of artificial intelligence replicas of actors. The bills were originally passed in August and were supported by the Hollywood actors’ union, the Screen Actors Guild, following last year’s new contract that also included new protections.
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Newsom said: “We are making sure that no one is handing over their name, image and likeness to unscrupulous individuals without union representation or advocacy.”
Last week, a new set of guidelines was also published for documentary filmmakers to ensure the ethical use of AI in their work. “In a world where it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between a real photograph and a generated one, we believe it is absolutely critical to understand the ways in which generative AI could impact non-fiction storytelling,” reads a statement from the Archival Producers Alliance.