46. James Cameron Returns to Dry Land.
AI blowback and more Lionsgate/Runway. I did an all-nighter on this so please at least read the good parts (it's all good)
Listen to “The Ad Stack On the Air” - a discussion and analysis of this edition by personable AI DJ’s. From Notebook ML. Also available as a podcast on Spotify, and others players. Visit the episode website for additional information.
1. James Cameron finds new ways of blowing shit up.
Joins Stability AI
James Cameron, Self-Proclaimed God of Cinema, Deigns to Grace Stability AI's Board of Directors.
Los Angeles, California September 24, 2024 - Stability AI, a company desperately in need of some headlines, announced that James Cameron has magnanimously agreed to join its Board of Directors. The announcement was made by Stability AI CEO, Prem Akkaraju, who was reportedly giddy with excitement.
Cameron, known for his modest films about small boats and blue cat people, has been a driving force in convincing Hollywood that more pixels equal better movies. As a director, writer, and producer, he has pushed cinematic boundaries and brought to life some of the most expensive and time-consuming films of all time, including The “Terminator(s)” 1-4, “Titanic” (spoiler alert - it doesn’t end well) and the "Avatar" series (humans are usually bad, aliens good). No argument here.
Cameron's artist-centric perspective, paired with his business acumen and penchant for yelling "Action!" really loudly, will support Stability AI in continuing to unlock new opportunities to empower creators to tell stories in ways once unimaginable, like filming the same movie for 13 years.
For more info watch the CNBC video.
2. Authors suing OpenAI will soon be inspecting its training data
Source: The Hollywood Reporter, September 25, 2024
In a twist that has the tech world buzzing … well not buzzing. I would define a database review less buzz - perhaps humming? The upshot - OpenAI, the company that brought you ChatGPT, is being forced to show its hand. Or rather, its training data.
The Great Book Heist of 2024
Picture this: a secure room in San Francisco where representatives of disgruntled authors will soon be allowed to peek behind the curtain to put the Open into OpenAI's AI system. These authors, led by the comedy queen Sarah Silverman (because who better to lead a lawsuit than someone who knows how to land a punchline?), claim their precious words were exhumed by OpenAI's intrusive algorithms without so much as a "May I?" or a royalty check.
Boring Movie
The inspection process sounds about as exciting as watching paint dry in binary. No phones, no cameras. Lawyers will be reduced to taking notes like it's 1995, hopefully with those little golf pencils you get at mini-golf courses.
Lawyers: The unsung heroes?
Meanwhile, the lawyers representing the authors are facing their own drama. Apparently, they've been so busy not taking depositions that the judge basically asked if they remembered they were supposed to be working on a case. Oops! Nothing says "I'm on top of things" like forgetting to do the bare minimum in a groundbreaking lawsuit.
The clock is ticking... or is it?
In a stunning display of time management reminiscent of college finals week, lawyers requested to cram 35 party depositions into the last 18 days of discovery. The judge, demonstrating a mastery of understatement, called this plan "obviously impossible." Who knew lawyers weren't time lords?
The future of AI: Now with 100% more lawyer supervision
As this legal circus unfolds, one can't help but wonder: Will the next generation of AI be trained on legal briefs and court transcripts? Will ChatGPT start responding to prompts with, "I'll need to consult with my attorney before answering that"? Only time will tell.
Stay tuned. This is just a legal first step with many more to follow.
3. The AI Resistance gains traction.
Source: Ad Age, August 21, 2024.
There exists an underground of AI malcontents sabotaging AI’s master plan of world dominance. According to Ad Age, the resistance is making headway.
Procreate, a design platform used by creatives, is the latest company to issue restrictions around AI, signaling how anti-AI sentiment is gaining steam in corners of the marketing world.
But what started on social media as a declaration of company policy, quickly became something bigger. Creatives poured in with thousands of comments and quote-tweets lodging fierce criticism at another design platform, Adobe, which has gone all-in on AI.
Time out here. Adobe’s Photoshop Beta is crazy nuts fun. Give me this, perhaps Premiere, and maybe Lightroom and you can have the rest. Now more on the anger.
The viral venting session, which has about 22,000 reposts and 7,000 responses as of writing, comes at a time of continued conflict between a community upon which the ad industry relies and the advanced tools that promise to augment it.
For more, including Crayola’s AI plans for your kids’ Crayons, read the article in Ad Age.
4. Lionsgate/Runway Part Deux
Source: Ad Age, September 23, 2024
Lionsgate’s new video AI deal renews debate in advertising and media
Lionsgate dropped a bombshell last week: they're hitching their wagon to Runway, the infamous video AI startup. It's like Hollywood's biggest player just declared, "AI, you're in!" But while brands are cheering, creatives are not popping champagne.
Ponder this: AI is cranking out ads faster than a popcorn machine. Brands like Under Armour (intriguing) and Toys R Us (diminished the brand) are already using it to whip up stuff left and right. But creatives might begin feeling a bit like they're taking a back seat to all of the attention. Turns out, consumers aren't thrilled about AI-made ads either. Looks like this AI thing is a double-edged sword: shiny on one side, a bit scary on the other. And God forbid you have words on-screen.
Presently, there is too much “Look at the AI I made” shit in my feed. The downside - I I feel like I’m watching producer demo reels all day. The upside - less room for Thought Leaders to dump their thought piles.
With one exception:
Check out PJ’s use case of Google NotebookLM.
This is straight-up crazy shizzle. I cancelled my ElevenLabs account last week for this. Podcasting got game. Now back to whatever we were discussing.
From Ad Age -
Numerous brands have fine-tuned AI models using their proprietary data to generate text, images and videos that are more relevant to their businesses. However, rarely have any marketers developed entirely bespoke models based on their full library of information. Doing so could allow Lionsgate to produce a large volume of content at a fraction of the traditional cost, said Jay Pattisall, VP and principal analyst at research firm Forrester.
Lionsgate just opened the floodgates for brands looking to turn their old stuff into new gold! Imagine taking your dusty IP and turning it into viral videos or even a whole TV show. Runway is just one of the many AI tools making this a reality. Showrunner, for example, can crank out entire shows based on old franchises. They've even managed to mimic Disney's "Cars" and "South Park." Limits don’t appear to exist.
And the tech giants are jumping on the bandwagon too. Amazon just launched a tool that can turn a product photo into a mini-movie. Get fired up for more “awesome” content. And YouTube? They're adding video generation to Shorts. It's like everyone's saying, "AI, let's make some more shitty content. Of me!"
The big question is: Are these AI-made videos ready for prime time? It's doubtful that Lionsgate will be rolling out full-length AI movies anytime soon, according to Pattisall. When asked about this, a Runway spokesperson just pointed to a blog post. That was posted here last week.
Animation?
Something else to ponder. Lionsgate does not have the street cred of a strong animation distributer. Perhaps runway can assist in that execution? Just wondering.
AI's still got a long way to go. For now, Lionsgate is mostly using Runway for little tweaks, like changing a character's eye color. It's like saying, "AI, can you please make this blue, but not too blue?"
The most credible argument from one producer is directors potentially will go from 100% control down to 2%.
That won’t do. All of the jokers who demand “Producer” credits will become card-carrying DGA members. Great.
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