Tech giant Meta has announced a collaboration with horror film production company Blumhouse to test its newest AI video tool, called Movie Gen. Although the program was introduced earlier this month, Meta stated that it remains under development and won't be integrated into publicly available products until next year. On Thursday, Meta revealed its ongoing partnership with Blumhouse filmmakers, recognized for popular franchises such as "Paranormal Activity, " "The Purge, " and "Insidious, " in order to refine and enhance the tool. Oscar-winning actor Casey Affleck, who has also had early access to Movie Gen, praised it in a promotional video, describing it as "more like a collaborator than just a tool. " The rise of AI became a contentious issue during last year's writers' strike in Hollywood, as many creatives voiced concerns that studios might use AI to generate scripts or potentially replace actors. However, Jason Blum, the founder of Blumhouse, expressed his enthusiasm for the opportunity to test the program during its development phase. He noted, "These are going to be powerful tools for directors, and it's important to engage the creative industry in their development to ensure they're suited for the job, " according to a blog post by Meta. Meta also released an impressive three-minute video crafted by filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty, centered on the notion that he should "hate" AI for threatening his industry.

In the video, Chaganty revisited clips he filmed as a child, utilizing Movie Gen to add elements like aliens, shift settings from the countryside to Manhattan, and create the illusion of being in a bank vault instead of his family home. He concludes with a reflective voiceover, "I hate AI, but with a tool like this. . . I dunno. . . maybe I would've just dreamt a little bigger. " Meta has touted Movie Gen's capability to generate videos with sound from short prompts or images as a significant advancement, although the tool is currently limited to producing 16-second clips. jxb/lth