As Hollywood workers try to protect their jobs from the impact of artificial intelligence (A.I.), the studios are courting the technology head on—or the other way around. The Financial Times first reported yesterday (March 28) that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and his chief operating officer Brad Lightcap recently held meetings with the major Hollywood studios, including Paramount (PARA), Warner Bros. and Universal, to showcase Sora, the company’s text-to-video generator debuted in February.
According to the Financial Times, some studios appeared open to using Sora in future productions, but the meetings were not so much about discussing specific partnering with OpenAI as they were about showcasing the video generator’s capabilities. Sora is still in its early stage and can only generate one-minute videos using text prompts.
Hollywood was already closely watching the development of A.I. video technologies. Last month, billionaire filmmaker Tyler Perry expressed concerns about Sora and how it could impact industry workers. He said seeing the technology influenced him to halt his $800 million studio expansion in Atlanta and consequently the creation of new jobs.
“I had gotten word over the last year or so that this was coming, but I had no idea until I saw recently the demonstrations of what it’s able to do. It’s shocking to me,” Perry told The Hollywood Reporter.
Perry also admitted to using A.I. in a few upcoming productions. He said the technology replaced the need for hair and makeup because he could just edit himself in post production.
The Hollywood studios may be looking at ways to implement A.I. technology like Sora, but they don’t have complete free reign over it. Both the writers and actors unions WGA and SAG-AFTRA wrote A.I. protections into their finalized contracts with the studios after months of striking last year.
The protections are still very much contested among union members. Some say they don’t go far enough to protect actors and writers. But the struggle is ongoing, as SAG, for example, is negotiating similar clauses with other creative industries, such as video gaming.