Tech Giants in Talks with Hollywood Over AI Content Licensing
Alphabet and Meta Platforms are negotiating with major Hollywood studios to license content for AI training and video generation.
It was recently reported that Alphabet and Meta Platforms are engaging in discussions with major Hollywood studios about licensing content for their artificial intelligence (AI) video generation software. Both tech giants are developing technology capable of creating realistic scenes from text prompts and have proposed deals worth tens of millions of dollars. OpenAI, supported by Microsoft, is involved in similar negotiations. None of the three companies — Alphabet, Meta, and OpenAI — have commented on these talks.
Hollywood studios are cautious about sharing their films and TV shows with tech companies without controlling content usage, while exploring AI to reduce costs while safeguarding their intellectual property (IP). Significant financial stakes are involved. News Corp, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, recently agreed to let OpenAI use content from over a dozen of its publications in a deal potentially exceeding $250 million over five years. Warner Bros Discovery has shown willingness to license some of its programs to train AI models, though only for specific divisions and not its entire library. Walt Disney and Netflix are not currently willing to license their content but are open to other collaborative efforts.
AI has been incorporated in production by Hollywood studios and filmmakers, and new tools like OpenAI’s Sora and Alphabet’s Veo promise to enable filmmakers to quickly create vivid, hyper-realistic clips from minimal descriptions.
These advancements have sparked opposite opinions, both excitement and concern, in Hollywood. Tyler Perry, an actor, filmmaker, and studio owner, reignited the AI-related job security concerns in the industry when he paused an $800 million studio expansion upon the release of Sora. Perry has advocated for the opportunities AI offers studios while also highlighting its potential impact on labor, calling for industry regulations. This week, actress Scarlett Johansson demanded OpenAI cease using a voice resembling hers for its chatbot, after she declined to collaborate with the company.
Despite these developments, no major studio has yet sued a tech company over AI, though many fear their copyrighted materials have already been used to train these models. Studios aim to harness AI’s potential rather than oppose it, but significant commercial agreements with major tech companies remain elusive. Licensing negotiations could also create tensions between studios and their creative partners. For instance, while studios believe they can license movies to AI companies, actors featured in those movies would want to approve or reject the use of their likenesses by AI models. Some actors have already entered agreements with AI firms.