Sony Pictures CEO Says Studio Will Use AI to Make Movies in "More Efficient Ways" Moving Forward

[Dead2009]

Sony Pictures CEO Says Studio Will Use AI To Make Movies In "More Efficient Ways" Moving Forward

Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra has confirmed the studio plans to utilise Artificial Intelligence to help produce future movies and TV shows. You can find his comments in full after the jump...

comicbookmovie.com

Sony Pictures has made a bold statement by confirming it will use Artificial Intelligence to produce future movies and TV shows.

Chief executive Tony Vinciquerra recently attended an investor conference in Japan and told attendees that the studio is "very focused on AI" as they look to cut costs.

"We'll be looking at ways to use AI to produce films for theaters and television in more efficient ways, using AI primarily," Vinciquerra said.

He'd later add, "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's referring to the ongoing negotiations between Hollywood's major crew union and top studios; the fear is that AI tools like OpenAI's "Sora" will undermine labour from crewmembers and talent. Now, the IATSE hopes to secure the same guarantees as actors and writers following the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.

Like it or not, studios are becoming increasingly reliant on AI; it was only last year that DreamWorks founder Jeffrey Katzenberg suggested it would likely cut the costs of making an animated movie by as much as 90%, with only 50 artists needed to create them in place of 500.

As for why Sony is heading down this route, The Hollywood Reporter believes it may come down to a series of commercial disappointments, including Morbius, Madame Web and, if we had to hazard a guess, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.

 

[MilkSpiller22]

this really has zero affect on the viewers like us... probably even better... if the studios save money, we the viewer will get more to watch... and sure, most will be not that good... but thats been the case for our entertainment forever... most stuff suck and a few are good, and fewer are great...

 

[Debbie Does]

Welcome to Sony. All our AI is busy helping our few remaining customers. Please hold for the next available movie.

 

[calsnowskier]

Sucks for animators, but AI is a great option for animation. You will need humans to review and edit (get rid of that errant 3rd arm here or that magically disappearing leg there), but the quality is amazing and FAST.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

I could see AI speeding up boring things like sound editing etc.

 

[Clayton]

I'm kinda leery of Sony being 'efficient'. Their video game department is making record profits while just kinda sitting around mostly just porting and remaking things. Meanwhile half of their consumers are still on PS4 and some of their consumers are on PC. They're blowing an insane amount of money on 1 or 2 projects a year and the majority of people following their products globally arent playing them likely because they're too broke to justify a PS5 and a $70+ game.

Maybe thats the right play for movies. Just promote the crap out of a couple of giant movies. Im not sure the movie industry is ever fully coming back.