Transcript
Matt Bellany (0:00)
If you care about Hollywood, and I assume you do, if you're listening to the Town, you should really be getting the whole story about Hollywood. That's what you get with Puck. I'm a founding partner Puck and I write a newsletter called what I'm Hearing. It's got exclusive news for insiders and analysis of the biggest stories. Puck has a bunch of great journalists. We just hired Kim Masters who also covers Hollywood from the inside, plus media, sports, fashion, politics and finance. It's a must have for plugged in people. Fans of the Town get a discount on the description page of this episode or at Puck News thetown. Go further into Hollywood by becoming a Puck member Today. This episode of the Town is presented by HBO Max, presenting the Emmy Award winning HBO Original series Hacks for your consideration, starring Gene Smart and Hannah Einbinder. The new season picks up with Deborah Vance's late night show finally in production and Ava Daniels stepping in as head writer. To Deborah's dismay, their ever complicated relationship is pushed to new limits as they clash over creative direction and get entangled in blackmail and betrayal. Don't miss the series, Slate says has never been better. Now streaming on HBO Max this Christmas.
Lukas Shaw (1:06)
Focus Features presents the new movie Song Song Blue, starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson as two down on their luck.
Matt Bellany (1:12)
Performers who fall in love and form.
Lukas Shaw (1:14)
A joyous Neil diamond tribute band. Critics and audiences are raving. Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson are electric in the best picture of the year and now Kate Hudson is a Golden Globe nominee for Best Actress.
Matt Bellany (1:25)
Good Times Never seem so good Based.
Lukas Shaw (1:29)
On a true story about never giving up on your dreams. Song sung blue rated PG13 only in theaters this Christmas.
Matt Bellany (1:37)
It is Monday, December 15th. Many in Hollywood, including me on this very show, went pretty nuts this past summer when OpenAI introduced Sora 2, its new AI text to video tool. There were almost no copyright guardrails. People could use the intellectual property freely. I made a couple creepy videos with Wednesday Adam and Peter Griffin from Family Guy. Sam Altman, the OpenAI CEO, first announced that copyright owners were going to have to opt out of Sora 2 individually, a huge middle finger. But after the freakout he changed that to opt in and the characters mostly disappeared from Sora, as did the users. Against that backdrop, it was pretty shocking to see the announcement last week that Disney, the leader of the Hollywood studios home to thousands of copyrighted characters, is now jumping into bed with OpenAI, investing a billion dollars in the company and signing a three year deal to allow more than 200 characters to be added to the AI platform for use by fans. That means Craig can finally make some sexy Little Mermaid videos or make a Yoda fighting Buzz Lightyear to the death video. There's some caveats, of course. No voices or human faces, so they hope to avoid image and likeness issues, though the guilds are rightly suspicious, and they say that guardrails are in place to protect against copyright abuses or the misuse of characters. Not sure how that's going to work, if it's okay for Homer Simpson to give a Hitler speech or those sexy videos of the Little Mermaid. Disney also hasn't said what OpenAI is paying to license these characters. Some reports suggest it's not very much, given how much this deal legitimizes Sora and potentially will lead to other deals with big copyright holders. There was lots of language about Disney and OpenAI affirming a shared commitment to the responsible use of AI that protects user safety and and the rights of creators. Okay. Disney also agreed to become a big customer of OpenAI for all its internal systems. A huge win for Sam Altman and OpenAI. Big middle finger to Google, which Disney would very much like to protect its copyrighted materials as well. So the big question is, why did Disney and its CEO Bob Iger do this? Is Disney so desperate to jump on the AI bandwagon that it would take this kind of brand risk with its most valuable characters? Is this a play for Disney to eventually become a much more interactive platform? And what could ultimately go wrong there? We've got Lukas Shaw from Bloomberg back here to discuss. We'll do a little update on the Warner Brothers sales situation, but mostly It's Disney and OpenAI. What the heck is Iger thinking From the Ringer and Puck, I'm Matt Bellany and this is the Town. We are here with Lukas Shaw from Bloomberg. Welcome back, Lucas.
