Big studio exec axes $800 Million studio project after seeing OpenAI SORA

OpenAI’s recent demonstration of its new video-generator tool, Sora, caused a lot of hand-wringing about potential job losses, and now a TV and movie mogul is weighing in. Tyler Perry says he has halted an $800 million expansion of his Atlanta studio complex that would have added a dozen soundstages. Seeing the Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool in action prompted the move, he said.

“All of that is currently and indefinitely on hold because of Sora and what I’m seeing,” he told the Hollywood Reporter on Thursday. “I had gotten word over the last year or so that this was coming, but I had no idea until I saw recently the demonstrations of what it’s able to do. It’s shocking to me.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed the first look at the Beta version of Sora a little while ago, saying it was available to a “limited number of creators” for now. It lets users, with nothing more than a simple text prompt, create 60-second videos so realistic that most people wouldn’t guess they were generated with artificial intelligence.

The Future of Movie Production, by Keynote Matthew Griffin

As a business owner, Perry sees Sora’s potential in cutting costs. It might become unnecessary to build sets or travel to locations, for instance. But he’s also an actor and filmmaker, and in terms of the threat to film and TV jobs, “there’s got to be some sort of regulations in order to protect us,” he said. “If not, I just don’t see how we survive.”

Perry said that as he watched demos of Sora, his mind turned to workers in his industry.

“It makes me worry so much about all of the people in the business,” he said. “Because as I was looking at it, I immediately started thinking of everyone in the industry who would be affected by this, including actors and grip and electric and transportation and sound and editors, and looking at this, I’m thinking this will touch every corner of our industry.”

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Prompt: “Several giant wooly mammoths approach treading through a snowy meadow, their long wooly fur lightly blows in the wind as they walk, snow covered trees and dramatic snow capped mountains in the distance, mid afternoon light with wispy clouds and a sun high in the distance… pic.twitter.com/Um5CWI18nS

OpenAI (@OpenAI) February 15, 2024

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He added, “I’m looking at my business and the bottom line, but I’m also very concerned about all the people that I have trained and brought up in this industry,” he said. “I’m concerned about what will happen to them.”

Sora is not the first tool of its kind, but the quality of the videos it generated alarmed Perry.

Last year, an AI-generated video showing Will Smith eating spaghetti went viral for another reason: It was horrific, with the actor’s eyes and mouth changing form as he pushed food into his face.

“The technology’s moving so quickly,” said Perry. “I feel like everybody in the industry is running a hundred miles an hour to try and catch up, to try and put in guardrails and to try and put in safety belts to keep livelihoods afloat.”

Tools like Sora will be a “major game-changer,” he said, because of simple economics. If a pilot that would normally cost $15 million or $35 million can instead be done at a fraction of the cost, like $1 million or even much less, companies will gravitate to the less expensive option, he noted. “So I am very, very concerned that in the near future, a lot of jobs are going to be lost,” he said. “I really, really feel that very strongly.”