Entertainment AI Tech News

Google DeepMind’s new partnership with A24 signals how AI filmmaking tools are moving into mainstream production, with the focus on storyboards, workflows, and creative support rather than training on studio IP. This episode also covers SAG-AFTRA’s expanded AI protections, Obsidian Studio’s human-plus-AI filmmaking model, legal pressure on Meta over AI training, the proposed No Fakes Act, and backlash in China over AI actors and portrait rights.Google DeepMind’s $75 million partnership with A24 marks one of the clearest signs yet that AI filmmaking is shifting from experimentation to real studio workflow. The deal gives A24 Labs and Google’s researchers a chance to build new tools for filmmakers, including AI-assisted storyboarding, while stopping short of using A24’s film and TV catalog for model training. That makes the collaboration less about replacing creative development and more about shaping how directors, producers, and production teams work inside a studio environment.The broader episode shows that Hollywood is now negotiating AI on multiple fronts at once. SAG-AFTRA has ratified a new contract with stronger protections around synthetic performers and digital replicas, while Obsidian Studio is pitching AI as a production accelerator that still depends on human judgment. At the same time, publishers are suing Meta over AI training, Congress is weighing the No Fakes Act and its impact on digital replicas, and China’s rise of AI actors is triggering backlash over celebrity lookalikes, consent, and portrait rights. Together, these stories point to an industry that is still deciding where AI belongs, who controls it, and what counts as legitimate creative use.Ginger Liu is the founder of Hollywood PR agency, Ginger Media & Entertainment, journalist and researcher on technology and entertainment, an MFA photographer and filmmaker, and host of the podcast Digital Afterlife: Hollywood & AI Tech