Striking deals with studios like Disney could help the tech giant shift the narrative about artificial intelligence.
Striking deals with studios like Disney could help the tech giant shift the narrative about artificial intelligence.
Google hasreportedly been reaching outto a number of Hollywood’s biggest studios, hoping to strike licensing agreements that would allow it to train its AI models on copyrighted material in exchange for massive piles of cash. In theory, these deals would be a win-win: a huge financial boon to the studios that would also give Google a significant advantage in its race to outpace other AI companies. But while there’s little downside for Google, the…
Though Google has not yet been able to get Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, or Universal to agree to anything officially, the company’s executives have been reaching out to multiple studio representatives with pitches focused on its AI technology, according to unnamed sources speaking toThe Los Angeles Times. Google wants permission to train its AI models on the studios’ vast libraries of copyrighted content, and it’s willing to spend hundreds of …
As expensive as these partnerships would be for Google, they would also be an invaluable tool as the company continues to crystalize its position as one of the most prominent players in the AI game. Gemini being able to spit out Disney-approved images of Darth Vader and Snow White might not seem all that significant on its face, but that’s exactly the sort of thing that could get more ordinary, non tech-obsessed people seeing generative AI in a m…
The content developed through these partnerships would presumably look better than the slop currently being churned out by models trained on ill-gotten source data, and having Google’s name and logos slapped all over official AI-generated Disney content would do wonders to legitimize this technology in people’s minds. But even if it didn’t, the partnership would still signal to the public that the entertainment industry sees generative AI as a to…
Regardless of whether a studio were to incorporate AI tools into their production workflows or simply feature user-generated AI content on their platforms (which wasDisney and OpenAI’s planbeforetheir partnership collapsed), striking a licensing agreement with Google would be a watershed moment.
Lionsgate, a notable studio but not a major player,struck a licensing deal with Runway in 2024. So far, nothing concrete has come out of that partnership, butthe companies say they’re working on a planto release AI-generated shorts. Once any one of the big legacy studios hop on to the AI bandwagon and manage to actually make something they can show the world, more production houses have a reason to follow suit. AI’s potential to speed production …
What may be keeping Disney and other studios from rushing to take Google up on its offers is the way that people have reacted to seeing AI used in the production of films likeSpider-Man: Brand New Day. Fans were dismayed to findAI-generated images inBrand New Day’s official artbook, and the negative reaction might have been even more intense had people known about the technology’s use before the film hit theaters. It’s impossible to know for sure…
Though Google has everything to gain from Hollywood embracing AI, the studios have to be mindful of how endorsing this technology could leave them out on a limb. And as much as Google might be presenting its products as the solution to all of the entertainment industry’s issues, the AI industry needs Hollywood more than Hollywood needs more slop.