What A24's New AI Partnership With Google Could Mean for Filmmakers
Here’s what you need to know about this announced partnership deal between A24 and Google.
While this might not be the biggest financial deal ever announced, news of a new research partnership between A24 and Google is sending shockwaves through the film and video industry. And for good reason, too, as it has to do with everyone’s favorite two letters: AI.
The deal, worth roughly $75 million, is tied to an AI research partnership that will give A24 access to Google’s DeepMind research and infrastructure. The goal, as stated by the companies, is for them to work together to develop AI-powered technologies for filmmakers.
But what does that actually mean? And should filmmakers in general be excited, terrified, or just existentially confused? Let’s explore.
A24 and Google AI Deal
So, after going through the layers of announcements covering this deal, it sounds like the TL;DR is that the two companies are starting with an exploratory partnership. The deal seems quite similar to the one Netflix did when it acquired Ben Affleck’s AI startup, InterPositive, a $600 million deal we covered at the time.
This deal seems similar because it is also focused on developing “AI-powered tools for filmmakers,” rather than the more nefarious-sounding goal of using IP or libraries to train new generative AI models. Which, we know, is where a lot of people’s minds go when they hear about these AI-based partnerships.
In the original coverage of this announcement, A24 partner Scott Belsky, who is the head of A24 Labs, told the Wall Street Journal that the goals of the deal are as follows: “We think there are better uses that preserve creative control and support risk-taking,” and that the results “won’t look anything like the prompted generation type of AI that people feel uncomfortable with.”
No Access to A24’s Content Library
The other major point mentioned in most coverage of this announced deal is that this partnership does not give Google and its DeepMind AI models access to A24’s content library or any of its data.
And, for now, that’s likely all this deal is. A partnership between brands looking to get ahead of the AI revolution and take steps towards developing their own, likely priority, AI tools to help their own filmmakers.
Yet, because it is so much smaller of a deal than the Netflix acquisition of the Ben Affleck startup, it seems like a bit of a drop in the bucket in this space. If A24 and Google are serious about developing their own AI tools, they’ll likely need to do a lot more.
And that’s about all we know regarding the deal that’s been shared on the record. We’ll keep you posted as this story develops and if and when anything substantive is added to this conversation.
