A24 Understands Your Frustration with the Google AI Collaboration

Backrooms, the recent blockbuster horror film, explores themes of repetition and decay. Central to its narrative is the fear of a world that appears to grotesquely imitate our own, which some have interpreted as a critique of generative AI. This notion has gained traction and resonance. With a global box office gross exceeding $300 million, Backrooms has emerged as the biggest success for its trendy producer and distributor, A24.

In light of this financial triumph, it’s amusing that A24 recently unveiled a $75 million research collaboration with DeepMind, Google’s internal AI lab. As reported by The Wall Street Journal on Monday, this tech giant is partnering with A24 to develop new filmmaking “tools” through A24’s technology initiative, A24 Labs, managed by cofounder Scott Belsky.

“This is a research collaboration,” A24’s communications director, Sophia Shin, stated in an email to WIRED. “We’re collaborating closely with DeepMind’s researchers to learn, iterate, and develop, actively shaping new tools and workflows.”

This initiative represents the latest in a series of uneasy and controversial partnerships between Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Last year, Disney revealed it was investing $1 billion in OpenAI, obtaining licenses for characters like Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and C-3PO for the company’s video generation model, Sora. Just months later, Sora was discontinued along with the deal. The challenge posed by AI to cinema and creative fields can feel existential: automating and obliterating entry-level jobs, jeopardizing writers’ rooms, and filling theaters with AI-generated content that ranges from mundane to dreadful. Some studios have filed lawsuits against AI companies for copyright violations.

Additionally, there are rising concerns that AI’s foothold in the film industry could stifle creativity, highlighted by studios pulling back from Luca Guadagnino’s biopic of OpenAI founder Sam Altman, Artificial.

The announcement of A24’s AI partnership was especially perplexing and contentious, given A24’s significance in modern film culture.

Fans of A24 do not seem to be embracing this news with enthusiasm. Earlier this week, A24 released a trailer for Jesse Eisenberg’s musical drama The Debut. Comments on X beneath the trailer were filled with criticism directed at A24, with fans sharing images of tombstones to mark the company’s supposed demise, threats of piracy to undermine A24’s profits, and sarcastic remarks like, “Pretty ironic that The Debut is the film that comes out in the mids [sic] of a24 ending itself with ai.” (Your interpretation of “irony” may differ.)

“Our relationship with our audience is something we cherish,” emphasizes A24’s Shin. “This partnership exists because we want to influence the tools that are developed for artists, allowing them to have a say in their creation as opposed to simply receiving them. We prefer to have a seat at the table rather than being sidelined.”

Google DeepMind did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

Cool Factor

A24 is a significant tastemaker in the cinematic landscape. “Just as Disney capitalizes on nostalgia, A24 has cultivated a reputation for being trendy and innovative throughout its history,” notes film critic Esther Rosenfield.

Prior to Backrooms, A24 championed iconic American indie films like The Witch, Moonlight, Midsommar, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and the recent Marty Supreme. The studio has propelled the work and careers of esteemed filmmakers such as Sofia Coppola, Denis Villeneuve, Ari Aster, Jane Schoenbrun, Celine Song, and the Safdie brothers. Since its inception in 2012, it has accumulated numerous Academy Award nominations. The distinctive A24 logo before a film trailer often generates excitement for new releases in a movie culture otherwise dominated by uninspired franchise blockbusters.