00:00 Speaker A
Sure, Lean, there are some critics who will push back on this, and they might say, look, AI actors, it’s not a creativity problem, it’s a studio problem trying to cut labor costs. What do you say to that?
00:23 arena
I think it’s about democratizing creativity, right? We’re a small studio, so we weren’t able to make feature films before, but thanks to AI, we’re able to do that. Therefore, we are not taking on any work. We’ve increased our workforce sixfold in the past year. So we’re actually creating a lot of new jobs. So I think there’s a silver lining here that people just don’t realize. I mean, I would say real acting and real filmmaking still exists. Just because movies have come out and we can all coexist together, that doesn’t mean we won’t go to the theater anymore. Just because you can record music doesn’t mean you can’t listen to it live anymore. We can all coexist. And I think momentary fear is understandable, but after a little while you learn how to rationalize it in your head and how to move forward. It’s the same thing as we’ve gone through many revolutions before, such as the Industrial Revolution.
01:52 Speaker A
Gen AI systems are trained on, um, arena, and of course, a huge amount of human-created work. Should human creators be compensated for it?
02:11 arena
I know this is very difficult. Because I think that I myself have naturally been trained on the job. I’ve been uploading content to the internet for many years, and there were times when it really pissed me off. Or I go, okay, this is a level playing field. We can all use tools that are publicly available and only publicly available on Particle 6, and get creative right from the moment. And we all have the same tools at our disposal. What I’m confused about is if it’s locked off and everyone’s trained, but it’s locked off to a particular studio and only those people can use it. So I think as long as the tool is open and available to everyone, that’s the only way I can feel comfortable with the fact that it’s trained for my job.
03:09 Speaker A
And please explain your business model, Lean, how does it work? How do you all make money? Is what you’re doing creating an AI actor? Is it making a movie? Is it, uh, technology licensing, all of the above?
03:26 arena
Yes, that’s it. We have four divisions. We have a brand and campaigns department because this is much more accepted in advertising. So we’re currently doing a lot of different ads in the UK as well as in the US. And we have an AI consulting division that helps studios and production companies use AI in this new era. We also have a suite of tools that build on our existing publishing tools to make the transition much easier for filmmakers and production staff. Then there are film and television studios that co-produce or produce AI content with other studios. And then there’s Secoya, which creates original characters, interactive characters, narrative dramas and feature films.
