Provided by: Tyler Perry Studio
Tyler Perry has been demonstrating what AI can do. He is surprised and alarmed at the same time.
Perry is already voting with his wallet on this one. His plans to expand his Atlanta studio for $800 million are on hold after seeing a demonstration of OpenAI’s text-to-video model Sora, which went viral with a cinematic video.
In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Perry seemed to warn filmmakers that they were staring into the abyss.
“It’s one thing to be told it can do all these things, but to actually see what it does was shocking,” he said. While he thinks there is opportunity in him as a businessman, he also expressed his concerns about people working in the business. “We need some regulation to protect us. Otherwise, I don’t know how we will survive.”
He added, “I’ve been following AI closely and watching its advances closely. I’ve been in the midst of planning an approximately $800 million studio expansion for the past four years. will be ridiculously large and add 12 more soundstages. All of that is currently and indefinitely on hold due to what Sora and I are seeing. I’ve been hearing about it for about a year now, but I didn’t know until recently when I saw a demonstration of what it could do. It’s shocking to me.”
When Perry explains what AI can do, it’s easy to see how many jobs could be eliminated.
“You don’t have to go to a location anymore. If you want to be in the snow in Colorado, it’s text. If you want to write a moon scene, it’s text, and this AI can generate it like nothing. If you want to live in a living room in the mountains, you don’t have to build a set in the mountain, you don’t have to put a set on your property. You can do this by sitting in your office and using your computer. It’s shocking to me.
“It makes me so worried about all the people in this industry, because as soon as I look at this, I think the actors, the grips, the electrical, the traffic, the sound, the editors, all the people who are going to be affected by this. I started thinking about all the people in the industry that were there. I looked at this and thought, “This is going to impact everyone. Our corner of the industry.”
Perry is using AI in two upcoming films.
“I absolutely think it has to be all-hands.” [deck], an industry-wide approach. One union cannot contest all contracts every two or three years. Our industry is rapidly changing before our eyes, so I think it’s going to take everyone involved to figure out how to protect the future of our industry. I think of all the construction workers and contractors who will no longer be employed because I won’t do the next phase of the studio. Because there’s no need to do it. ”
