After a difficult year marked by two devastating losses, the 96th Academy Awards will provide Hollywood with an opportunity to present itself exactly the way it wants to be seen.
This year's nominees include critically acclaimed blockbusters (Oppenheimer and Barbie), avant-garde fare (poor thing), the director turns to (Killers of the Flower Moon, area of interest) and biting sarcasm (American novel). The “Bappenheimer” Oscars should put to rest recent criticism that the nominees are too unknown, at least this year.
The lineup is rich enough to make the industry forget that entertainment companies are tightening their belts, and “survive until 2025” has become the motto of some Hollywood workers.
But a new concern has emerged in recent weeks that has only heightened Hollywood's anxiety over the technology fueled by the streaming revolution: OpenAI's text-to-video generator Sora.
Karla Ortiz, concept artist and illustrator, known for Marvel movies black panther and Doctor Strange, Says Hollywood is struggling with “competing sentiments.”
“Hollywood loves that there are two blockbuster movies nominated for Oscars,” Ortiz said. “But budgets were also cut this year, and OpenAI released Sora and people were scared.”
On February 15th, Microsoft-backed OpenAI caused panic by showing off some stunningly beautiful clips whose quality shocked cinematographers, animators, and filmmakers.
Director and producer Tyler Perry was the first to sound the alarm, telling The Hollywood Reporter that he has put the Atlanta studio's $800 million expansion on hold “indefinitely” after meeting Sola project. “I didn’t know that until I saw a demonstration of its capabilities recently,” he said. “It shocked me.”
A report released in January titled “The Future: Improvisational” found that entertainment groups were among the earliest adopters of generative artificial intelligence, which is likely to lead to “the complete elimination of many jobs.”
CVL Economics reported that nearly 65% of 300 business leaders surveyed for the study said they expected generative AI to cause job losses within the next three years. CVL Economics was commissioned by the Animation Guild and other unions representing the animation industry. Artists in the entertainment industry.
According to the report, California accounted for 28% of job losses in the creative industries, followed by New York. These figures do not include gig workers and freelancers, who may also be significantly affected.
Brandon Jarratt, technical director at Walt Disney Animation Studios and a member of the Animation Society’s Artificial Intelligence Working Group, said his industry has had a range of reactions to the emergence of generative AI. “Some people think it might take some of the drudgery out of their jobs and make it easier,” he said. “Others see this as an existential threat to the skills they have honed their entire lives.“
Now, Sora isn't ready for her close-up. It could only generate about a minute of video and lacked human understanding of physics. Falling glass is just as likely to bounce when it hits the ground as it is to break.
“There’s really no story in these short films, we just see clips that look amazing,” said Nick Lynes, co-CEO and founder of Flawless, a company for filmmakers and The studio provides artificial intelligence tools. “They're a great example of how technology is evolving, but it's going to be a long time before we can actually provide proper support to filmmakers.”
But Sora is learning — and how it learns is a major concern for many in Hollywood and beyond. Entertainment companies, media conglomerates and some individuals are trying to stop artificial intelligence companies from mining vast troves of copyrighted material to enhance their models.
In December last year, the New York Times became the first major American media group to sue OpenAI and Microsoft over artificial intelligence chatbots. The New York Times is seeking billions of dollars in damages in a lawsuit that Microsoft called “apocalyptic futurology” in a filing dismissing the case.
Ortiz last year sued artificial intelligence generators Stability AI, Midjourney and DeviantArt for allegedly teaching the tools from her work. She had similar concerns about Sora.
“When I looked at Sora, two things came to my mind: What is this training for? Are we going to meet?” she said. “The other is that it's a risk to our jobs. It's using our jobs to drive these models and then compete with us in our own market.”
Last year, the Writers Guild of America won groundbreaking protections against artificial intelligence in a three-year contract with Hollywood studios. Jarratt said the animation association will seek similar measures this year when negotiating a new deal, which he believes would be more effective than going through the courts.
“Copyright law is not going to save us,” he said. “We can try to build protections into contracts, [which] We believe we can make the most progress possible. Progress in the courts is painfully slow, while technology is moving ever faster. There won't be some magic ruling that makes all this technology illegal. ”
“Training data comes from content we have licensed and publicly available,” OpenAI said.
Lines sees AI as another step in a series of innovations that are changing the way movies and TV shows are made. He said the efficiencies of AI will eventually produce an “unprecedented” number of new works and make “filmmaking a sound investment and a sound business proposition”.
“I actually think we’re entering a boom period in all areas of filmmaking,” Lines said. “The tools that can reduce production costs and do things in a more efficient way are the same and can give filmmakers more creative control.”
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