Despite recent concerns expressed by director James Cameron about artificial intelligence potentially causing people to lose their sense of purpose, the long-time early adopter has now joined the board of Stability AI.
Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion, has announced that Cameron has signed an agreement to become a new member of its executive team. CEO Prem Akalaji stated in a press release that Cameron's addition is a "milestone statement for the entire AI industry" and described the filmmaker as "living in the future, waiting for the rest of us to catch up." Cameron mentioned that his long-standing interest in experimenting with emerging technologies motivated him to join Stability AI and highlighted that the "convergence of generative AI and CGI image creation" will be the next major breakthrough, poised to revolutionize the film production industry.
It remains unclear how Cameron's addition to Stability AI will impact the company, but his joining comes at a time when various studios are showing increased interest in partnering more closely with AI firms. Last week, Lionsgate announced a collaboration with Runway to develop a generative AI model based on its film and television catalog. Earlier this year, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Tony Vinciquerra revealed that the company plans to deploy this technology to achieve significant cost savings.
Although AI companies and their partner studios have consistently asserted that their collaborations will ultimately have a positive impact on the industry, this shift was partly responsible for last year's strike by Hollywood actors and writers.
Cameron himself has recently faced criticism for using AI to remaster his classic films such as "The Abyss," "True Lies," and "Alien." Stability AI is currently dealing with multiple lawsuits accusing the company of training its models with copyrighted material, which could potentially affect the company's plans depending on the outcome. However, amidst all the uncertainties in the AI field, Cameron appears particularly eager to make significant strides in the AI boom.
