LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Ed Ulbrick veteran Ed Ulbrick, who worked on films such as the visual effects Titanic, The Bizarre Case of the Benjamin Button and Top Gun: Maverick, has joined the artificial intelligence research firm Moon Valley as head of strategic growth and partnerships.
Ulbrich will work to expand its relationship with the company in Hollywood and work with Moonvalley's Studio Arm Asteria Film to promote the adoption of that technology.
He said in an interview that there are similarities between the rise of generated AI and the birth of computer-generated images.
“I've seen this before because a lot of people were worried about us getting rid of our work,” Ulbric said. “History, by the way, shows that hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created from that technology bloom.”
Moonvalley is one of several artificial intelligence companies seeking to establish foothold in Hollywood.
The company has set itself up as respecting copyright, using only licensed works used to train Marey, an AI video model.
The misuse of film and television libraries has become a recent flashpoint, leading two major Hollywood studios to file lawsuits against another AI company, Midjourney.
“What drew me to Moon Valley is their respect for crafts, their use of clean and licensed data and their focus on creators who empower them,” Ulbric said.
Ulbrich has over 30 years of experience in visual effects, with over 50 films and television and 500 commercial units. He also helped the pioneers live their digital human performances with a holographic projection of late rapper Tupac Shakur at the 2012 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
Before joining Moonvalley, Ulbrich served as Chief Content Manager and Production President at Metaphysic. Metaphysic is best known for age-and-de-three actors Tom Hanks and Robin Wright in the film “Here.” The company was acquired by DNEG Group in February.
He also played senior roles and CEO in Deluxe and Digital Domain.
(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles, Editing by Chris Reese)
