Meta partners with Hollywood's Blumhouse to test out its AI movie generation model

Lions Gate Entertainment

17/10/2024 16:00

By Katie Paul
       NEW YORK, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Facebook owner Meta
 META.O  said on Thursday it had teamed up with Blumhouse
Productions, the Hollywood company behind popular horror films
such as "The Purge" and "Get Out," to put its new generative AI
video model Movie Gen to the test.
    The announcement comes after Meta unveiled Movie Gen, which
it said can create realistic-seeming video and audio clips in
response to user prompts, earlier this month. Meta claimed the
tool could rival offerings from leading media generation
startups such as OpenAI and ElevenLabs.
    In a blog post, the social media company said Blumhouse had
selected filmmakers Aneesh Chaganty, The Spurlock Sisters and
Casey Affleck to try out Movie Gen and use clips generated by
the tool in their short films.
    Chaganty's film would appear on Meta's Movie Gen website,
while films from Affleck and The Spurlock Sisters were
forthcoming, Meta said.
    Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum said in a statement that artists
remain the lifeblood of the industry and innovative technology
can aid in their storytelling. 
    "We welcomed the chance for some of them to test this
cutting-edge technology and give their notes on its pros and
cons while it’s still in development,” Blum said. “These are
going to be powerful tools for directors, and it’s important to
engage the creative industry in their development to make sure
they’re best suited for the job.”
    With the partnership, Meta is signaling how it aims to
collaborate with creative industries, whose members have largely
recoiled in response to the arrival of generative AI
technologies over concerns around copyright and consent.
    Several groups of copyright owners have sued major tech
companies, including Meta, over the unauthorized use of their
works to train generative AI systems. Meta has argued its AI
training is protected by the copyright doctrine of fair use.
    However, Meta and other tech companies have shown they are
willing to pay for certain types of content for AI. Aside from
the Movie Gen partnership, Meta said last month it had struck
deals with actors including Judi Dench, Kristen Bell and John
Cena to give voice to its Meta AI chatbot.
    Similarly, Microsoft-backed  MSFT.O  OpenAI has been meeting
with Hollywood executives and agents this year to discuss
possible partnerships involving its video generation tool Sora,
which it first showed off in February.
    No deals have been reported to have come out of those talks
yet, though Lions Gate Entertainment  LGFa.N  said in September
that it had struck a deal with another AI startup, Runway.

 (Reporting by Katie Paul in New York with additional reporting
by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Editing by Muralikumar
Anantharaman)
 ((Katie.Paul@thomsonreuters.com))