Tech Firm Says It Will Fund Moviemakers If They Use Its AI Tools

The artificial intelligence research company that inked a notable partnership with Lionsgate to train its AI model on the studio’s massive 18,000-title movie and TV library is now looking to encourage the use of the emerging tech with a fund for indie filmmakers.

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Runway, led by CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela, unveiled on Thursday its Hundred Film Fund, which it says will provide grants ranging from $5,000 up to $1 million in order to hasten the production of movies using its AI tech.

The fund will have an advisory panel that includes Tribeca Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal, Television Academy emerging media exec Lee Storm, Company 3 founder Stefan Sonnenfeld, NVIDIA exec Richard Kerris and artist will.i.am. In order to be considered for a grant, “You must use the grant to work on AI-powered films (leveraging Runway prominently within the project),” the fund’s FAQ page reads.

Runway, which counts Google, NVIDIA and Salesforce Ventures among investors in a $141 million fund raise last year, unveiled its deal with Lionsgate on Sept. 18, in which the studio will grant the company access to its library (home to the John Wick , Hunger Games , Twilight and Saw franchises). For the past two years, Runway has also hosted the AI Film Festival, with backers including Coca-Cola and Goldman Sachs, to encourage moviemakers to submit short films powered by AI tools.

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The pact with Lionsgate marks the first publicly announced such deal between a major studio and a large AI firm, as a heated debate plays out in court and in boardrooms over the mining of film, TV, writing and art for AI models. Copyright battles are set to intensify as some companies choose to take cash from AI firms while others have filed lawsuits.

Some major media brands (Condé Nast, News Corp, Vox Media, The Atlantic and more) have made deals with AI companies that allows publishers’ writing to be used in training data, but there hasn’t been similar pacts by Hollywood studios announced.

“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,” Valenzuela had stated of the Lionsgate deal. “The best stories are yet to be told.”

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