OpenAI Goes Hunting for More Suckers in Hollywood

OpenAI wants to be a star. A big, bright, shining star. According to a new report, the influential AI company has spent the last few months courting Hollywood executives in the hopes of convincing them that its newest content-generator, Sora, will be useful when it comes to making movies.

Bloomberg reports that the AI company plans to hold more meetings in Los Angeles next week with “Hollywood studios, media executives and talent agencies” in the hopes of convincing them to use Sora. These discussions are just the latest round of talks, according to sources familiar with them. The report also notes that Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, attended multiple parties in L.A. during the same weekend that the Oscars took place. It doesn’t specify whether Sam’s partying had anything to do with the company’s Sora pitch.

The specific details of OpenAI’s Hollywood conversations are unknown. A company spokesperson gave Bloomberg a vaguely worded response when queried about its plans: “OpenAI has a deliberate strategy of working in collaboration with industry through a process of iterative deployment – rolling out AI advances in phases – in order to ensure safe implementation and to give people an idea of what’s on the horizon,” the spokesperson told the news outlet. “We look forward to an ongoing dialogue with artists and creatives.”

If OpenAI is looking forward to this so-called “dialogue” with creatives, creatives may be less excited. Artificial intelligence has rightfully stirred concern throughout Hollywood, as conversations about using the technology to replace writers, actors, and effects artists have swirled. AI notably played a pivotal role in the negotiations related to last year’s Hollywood writer’s strike.

As for OpenAI’s Sora, the app has not been publicly launched yet. Last month, the company released several videos that it said had been generated using its application. The videos inspired a lot of buzz on social media, with some people lauding the videos’ visual effects and others ridiculing them. At the time, we predicted that Sora would be used to flood social media with toxic nonsense.

While its content-generating tools would seem to make it a natural competitor to other companies in the media and entertainment industries, OpenAI has perpetually sought to convince said companies that they stand to profit by partnering with it. In previous deals, OpenAI convinced multiple reputable news organizations to surrender huge tranches of proprietary data that OpenAI could use to train its algorithms in exchange for…well, that part is less clear. It would seem like the company’s strategy in Hollywood will probably be the same, though it’s too early to tell.