Within Hollywood's artistic community, artificial intelligence is currently viewed as a significant threat. In a film and television industry experiencing reduced production and increasing difficulty for actors, writers, and directors to secure steady employment, discussions by company leaders regarding AI's capabilities are not being received favorably.
TL;DR
- Hollywood's artistic community views AI as a significant threat amid industry difficulties.
- Natasha Lyonne launched Asteria Film Co. to use AI for ambitious, visually rich films.
- Lyonne believes creators should find beneficial AI uses rather than fall behind.
- She is concerned about AI's impact on crews, cast, and unions like IATSE and Teamsters.
Some individuals were initially taken aback to find Natasha Lyonne, the performer and author recognized for Russian Doll and Orange Is the New Black,launch an AI company. However, she believes it's more advantageous for creators to determine methods for employing AI beneficially, instead of falling behind.
Asteria Film Co. Is the name of her business; it uses AI tools to produce “ambitious and visually rich films on independent budgets.” The AI model Moonvalley, developed for filmmaking and cinematography, is what it utilizes.
Lyonne attended Coins2Day’s Brainstorm AI summit in San Francisco recently, engaging in a discussion with my associate and Term Sheet writer Allie Garfinkle concerning this recent venture. She mentioned her fascination with technology and speculative fiction began during the production of Russian Doll (for viewers unfamiliar with the Netflix series, it features recurring temporal cycles).
“It does seem that there’s some real rarefied air of sort of C-suite versus the rest,” she said of tension over AI in Hollywood. “And I’m deeply concerned, at least in my business, I’m someone who’s been doing this since I’m 4. … I really care about crews, cast, [the union] IATSE, Teamsters, all of us—writers, directors, people that have made their own work as artists.”
She says she’s not worried about some of the recent AI stories that have roiled the industry. “I’m not sweating Tilly Norwood,” she said of the AI-generated “actress.” “I’ve heard her name. Haven’t met her, not convinced she’s real or super important, might just be a distraction, a little fear tactic, chaos.”
To those in creative fields who pride themselves on avoiding AI entirely, she advises to look at the structures around them. “It’s very easy to say, ‘I made my album with no AI,’ but your marketing department did not,” she said. “So what do we really mean when we say AI?”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.Hinchliffe@coins2day.com
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