In an effort to save expenses, Sony Pictures is utilising generative artificial intelligence.
Tony Vinciquerra, the business’s chief executive, stated during a Japanese investor conference on Thursday that the company is “very focused on AI” and is mobilising to integrate the technology into the filmmaking process in order to expedite production.
“Our primary focus will be on utilising AI to produce films for television and theatres in a more efficient manner,” Vinciquerra stated.
Context for the comments: Hollywood’s top studios and the primary crew union are now negotiating a new contract, which is scheduled to expire on July 31. Similar to the writers’ and actors’ strikes, limits on AI use have become a major bargaining chip.
Buzzy AI technologies like OpenAI’s text-to-video model Sora have caused Hollywood worry that they could undermine talent and crew labour after the work stoppages were resolved last year. It has shown that union safeguards are the main thing preventing displacement.
According to Vinciquerra’s remarks, the only thing stopping studios from using technology more extensively is their agreements with labour unions.
“The agreements that came out of last year’s strikes and the agreements that will come out of the IATSE and Teamster [negotiations] will define roughly what we do with AI,” he said.
Last year, DreamWorks founder Jeffrey Katzenberg predicted that AI will cut the cost of animated movies by as much as 90 percent as the tech is positioned to disrupt the media and entertainment industries. Pointing to the “good old days” when a world-class animated films took 500 artists five years to create, he said that it “won’t take 10 percent of that three years from now.”
According to a January research that surveyed 300 executives in the entertainment industry, artificial intelligence is eliminating employment in Hollywood, and there is no sign of this trend changing. According to the report, three-fourths of respondents felt that their companies’ use of AI tools encouraged the loss, reduction, or consolidation of jobs. Particularly at risk were voice actors, concept artists, visual effects artists, and other postproduction personnel.
Visual production supervisor Kathryn Brillhart, a cinematographer who worked on Fallout, Rebel Moon, and Black Adam, emphasised the potential of AI tools to simplify visual effects. She stated, “It’s advancing the craft,” at the May AI on the Lot seminar on how studios might use AI. “I am more adept at teaching myself skills than I ever have been. “I can teach myself skills at a fast rate than I ever have before. I can think about workflows in different ways.”
Sony Pictures is recovering from the box office disaster of Madame Web, which destroyed hopes for a new franchise. Although it was a critical failure, 2022’s Morbius, another Sony Spider-Man film, brought in $170 million worldwide.
