Lionsgate announced a new collaboration with the artificial intelligence company Runway on Thursday morning.
According to the press release, the new partnership will be a first of its kind Runway will train a new AI model using the movie studio’s extensive catalog of approximately 20,000 film and television titles.
Runway hopes that this project will help produce cinematic videos for Lionsgate Studios’ future work.
This partnership is a defining moment in Hollywood, due to the contentious debate on the potential impact of AI and other future technologies within the industry, seen within last year’s industry strikes.
Lionsgate Vice Chair Michael Burns expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership in a statement, calling the technology a valuable supplementary tool for their production process.
“Runway is a visionary, best-in-class partner who will help us utilize AI to develop cutting-edge, capital-efficient content creation opportunities,” said Burns. “Several of our filmmakers are already excited about its potential applications to their preproduction and postproduction process. We view AI as a great tool for augmenting, enhancing, and supplementing our current operations.”
Runway Co-founder and CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela described the partnership as an excellent opportunity to support the studio’s work.
“We’re committed to giving artists, creators, and studios the best and most powerful tools to augment their workflows and enable new ways of bringing their stories to life. The history of art is the history of technology and these new models are part of our continuous efforts to build transformative mediums for artistic and creative expression; the best stories are yet to be told,” said Valenzuela. “Lionsgate has an incredible creative team and a clear vision for how AI can help their work – we’re excited to help bring their ideas to life.”
Despite the ongoing concerns about AI’s potentially negative impact on the Hollywood job market, more partnerships between Runway are likely on their way.
However, Runway, like many other AI companies isn’t free from controversy and legal challenges. Currently, the company faces a lawsuit by a collection of artists for potential copyright infringement and trade dress violations.
