Why Sam Altman thinks AI Can Benefit Creativity in Hollywood

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes that AI will benefit Hollywood and not impact the industry as negatively as critics are saying.

“I think people really care about other people,” Altman tells Variety.

“I think people really care about the human beings behind the stories and the art and the creative work that matters so much, so my instinct is it’s going to go the other way and people will care more about humans and more about human creators in the future, not less.”

Sam suggests AI will serve as a complement to Human-centric work, arguing the increase of AI use in cinema will allow for a greater appreciation of artists and storytellers.

He says that he isn’t communicating with Hollywood insiders on a regular basis, but also “not infrequently”.

“We do hear a lot from creatives who are like, ‘I have these new ideas. I want to give input into the next model. I want these things to be possible,’” Sam adds.

Human-centric opportunities

Sam has previously spoken about the benefits of AI against concerns that the technology could bring about mass layoffs on an industrial scale.

In a conversation with CEO Mathias Döpfner on an episode of MD MEETS, Sam discussed the potential boons and problems that could arise following the AI revolution and how the world has already reached an era where machine intelligence is better than human decision-making.

“I think there will come a time when AI can be a much better CEO of OpenAI than me, and I will be nothing but enthusiastic the day that happens,” he said.

“It doesn’t scare me, it doesn’t make me sad, it’s just like I did this one thing that has been automated and I wanted it to be automated and that’s kind of what we’re doing.”

Sam added that in the short term AI could destroy jobs, but in the long term, it could bring about new, people-centric opportunities.

He said that what makes humans unique isn’t their “intellectual capacity”, but their ability to effectively communicate with each other.

“Humans, human society, we have such main character energy we don’t really care that the machines are smarter than us. They already are,” Sam said.

The importance of regulation

In late March, Sam informed new Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro that he was closing the Sora video-gen programme before Disney was able to announce the list of characters available to users on the AI platform.

In an interview with iHeartPodcasts in early April, Sam said he felt “terrible” about it, but said that Disney and OpenAI are still looking to work with one another.

Following the closure of Sora, Disney cancelled its US$1bn investment in OpenAI.

In the same interview with Variety, Sam declined to share his views when asked about the late Val Kilmer’s likeness being used to create an AI copy of the actor in the upcoming film As Deep as the Grave.

“I don’t think I’m the best person to answer that question,” he said. “I probably have no deep insight there that people in this room don’t have better things to say about it.”

In light of AI being used as a fundamental creative tool within the media industry and the calls for its regulation, Sam added: “I think some regulation will be important. It’s obviously very important to get it right.”