This is an excerpt from Alex Heath SourcesA newsletter about artificial intelligence and the tech industry, distributed only to The Verge subscribers once a week.
This week I took a closer look at how far apart Silicon Valley and Hollywood are on what to do with artificial intelligence.
First up at OpenAI DevDay, Sam Altman introduced the new Sora app as a gift to content creators. In any case, he suggested, OpenAI too strict preventing people from creating even more types of videos using AI.
“Overall, the creators, rights holders and people are very excited about the potential of this project,” Altman said during a media interview in San Francisco on Monday that I attended. “They believe it will deepen the connection. It's like a new generation of fan fiction.”
The next day I arrived at BloombergScreentime event in Los Angeles to hear what media executives, agents and studio executives think about the coming AI meteor. Sora had just reached 1 million downloads on the App Store and was the center of everyone's attention. Overall, my impression is that Hollywood leaders still have no idea what to do about the risks that AI poses, and that they will be confused by technology that is advancing faster than they can imagine.
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison called AI the “new pencil” that can be created using
I've lost count of how many times the phrase “we care about copyrights” has been used as a mantra in Screentime. However, no one at the event wanted to specifically address the fact that OpenAI clearly trained in their IP without permission and released a product that, at least initially, there was no shame in making it clear. The fact that Hollywood leaders can't share with the public where they stand on this issue, or more importantly, what they plan to do about it, should be alarming to everyone in the business.
On stage, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters dodged the question entirely. BloombergLucas Shaw talked specifically about Sora, and instead talked about the more boring ways that AI is used in almost every stage of the production process. Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has also decided to tout the less controversial, instrumental aspect of AI, calling it a “new pencil” with which to create. The only executive I heard that was close to addressing the real issue on everyone's minds was Warner Music CEO (and former YouTube executive) Robert Kinkle, who made it clear that Warner content must be licensed for education and that there will be consequences for those who don't follow the rules.
It's no surprise that the music industry has a stronger outlook than, say, hem and giggle about artificial intelligence, which is currently being pursued by major talent agencies. Labels are better positioned to counter AI companies as a consolidated group of players who have faced this challenge before with the rise of music streaming. Kinkle went so far as to predict that AI would benefit the music industry in the long run, similar to how YouTube eventually solved the copyright problem and became a major distribution platform for the entertainment industry.
He might be right about music specificallybut a lack of collective action from the rest of Hollywood means AI companies will continue to get away with asking for forgiveness rather than permission. OpenAI's decision to train Sora in this way was a deliberate choice, not an accident, and it demonstrated a complete disregard for the consequences of absorbing other people's content to power its AI. Altman is simply following the same pattern that the tech industry has used. in the past to achieve dominance, so who can blame him this time?
