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Top Film Schools Are Striking Deals With AI Firms
Generative Graduate // Illustration by Nick Comney via DALL-E
Universities like USC, NYU, and Chapman are controversially introducing AI into their creative-arts programs.
The Big Picture: There are a lot of questions about how much AI will remake filmmaking (and the creative arts in general), and some schools don’t want to be playing catch-up to train their students for the disruption. But how they’re introducing the tech is creating a lot of debate among students, alumnus, and Hollywood at large.
Behind The Syllabus: Colleges are leaning into AI to stay cutting edge.
USC’s School of Dramatic Arts is launching an “Institute For Actor-Driven Innovation,” which will start by teaching actors the fundamentals of AI and graduate to doing things like read opposite an A-list deepfake or turn an AI agent into a real agent.
NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts struck a deal with AI-video startup Runway that gives students near-unlimited credits to use its software, hoping the tech will be used in productions. The partnership covers several programs, but not the flagship film one.
Chapman’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts invited AI-generated actress Tilly Norwood to give a lecture and offered $40,000 worth of grants to students who extensively use AI in one of their projects.
Final Project: The deans of these schools position the new AI programs or partnerships as a way for students to take ownership of the tech before it takes ownership of them — a bit of a “if you can’t beat them, join them” attitude. It’s justified as a necessity for preparing students for the job market they’re about to enter.
Yet many students feel like the colleges are blindly diving headfirst into a tech that is already sparking controversy in professional ranks. One Chapman student wrote in the school’s paper that “Students [are] wondering if the school’s intentions in incorporating AI stem from genuine motivation towards innovating the film industry, or pushing a different agenda based on shock value in an attempt to stimulate discussion.”
The answer: it might be a bit of both.
Next Semester: We may start to see a divide between pro-AI and anti-AI film schools, which could craft very different types of artists.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited and copy edited by Nick Comney.
Published by Darline Salazar.