James Cameron Joins Stability AI Board: A Shift in Perspective on Artificial Intelligence

James Cameron Joins Board of Stability AI In Coup for Tech Firm

In a major coup for the artificial intelligence company, Stability AI says that Avatar, Terminator and Titanic director James Cameron will join its board of directors. Stability AI is the firm that developed the Stable Diffusion text-to-image generative AI model, an image and video-focused model that is among those being closely watched by many in Hollywood, particularly in the visual effects industry. In fact, Stability AI's CEO, Prem Akkaraju, is no stranger to the business, having previously served as the CEO of visual effects firm WETA Digital. Sean Parker, the former president of Facebook and founder of Napster, also recently joined the AI firm as executive chairman. As a director, Cameron has long been eager to push the boundaries of what is technologically possible in filmmaking (anyone who has seen the Terminator franchise also knows that he is also familiar with the pitfalls of technology run amok). He was among the earliest directors to embrace the potential of computer-generated visual effects, and he continued to use his films (most recently Avatar: The Way of Water) to move the entire field forward. "I've spent my career seeking out emerging technologies that push the very boundaries of what's possible, all in the service of telling incredible stories," Cameron said in a statement. "I was at the forefront of CGI over three decades ago, and I've stayed on the cutting edge since. Now, the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave. The convergence of these two totally different engines of creation will unlock new ways for artists to tell stories in ways we could have never imagined. Stability AI is poised to lead this transformation. I'm delighted to collaborate with Sean, Prem, and the Stability AI team as they shape the future of all visual media." In a statement of his own, Akkaraju framed the role as a transformative one for the company, which is among a number of firms attempting to harness the power of generative AI for use in creative fields. "James Cameron lives in the future and waits for the rest of us to catch up," Akkaraju said in a statement. "Stability AI's mission is to transform visual media for the next century by giving creators a full stack AI pipeline to bring their ideas to life. We have an unmatched advantage to achieve this goal with a technological and creative visionary like James at the highest levels of our company. This is not only a monumental statement for Stability AI, but the AI industry overall." Stability AI raised $80 million earlier this year, in conjunction with the appointment of Akkaraju as CEO, and the addition of Parker as executive chairman. "James Cameron is a legend, both for his artistic vision as a filmmaker and his role as a pioneering technologist," Parker added in a statement. "Having an artist of his caliber with a seat at the table marks the start of a new chapter for Stability AI. We're incredibly excited by the limitless potential for creative collaboration between generative media platforms and the artistic community." Hollywood has a love-hate relationship with AI technology. On the one hand, companies are embracing the tech, with Lionsgate inking a deal this month to work with Runway to develop custom models trained on its content. And NBCUniversal used AI tools to create an AI-generated Al Michaels during this year's Paris Olympics. On the other hand, many creatives and Hollywood firms have either sued or threatened to sue some AI companies over fears that they trained their models on their content without permission.

Avatar and Terminator director joins Stability AI board

James Cameron, an Academy Award-winning director, has joined the Stability AI board of directors. One of the world's top directors, Cameron, is known for pushing the boundaries of visual effects that required new inventions in movies such as Avatar, Terminator, and Titanic. He is indeed quite familiar with the most advanced technologies. However, there is a catch between him and AI: he has criticized AI throughout his career. "I have spent my career seeking out emerging technologies that push the very boundaries of what's possible, all in the service of telling incredible stories," said Cameron. "I was at the forefront of CGI over three decades ago, and I have stayed on the cutting edge since. Now, the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave. The convergence of these two totally different engines of creation will unlock new ways for artists to tell stories in ways we could have never imagined. Stability AI is poised to lead this transformation. I am delighted to collaborate with Sean, Prem, and the Stability AI team as they shape the future of all visual media." Stability AI is best known for its text-to-image generative AI model, Stable Diffusion, released in 2022 and has seen over 150 million downloads. The model generates detailed images, and unlike DALL-E and Midjourney, it can run on consumer-grade hardware with a decent GPU with at least 4 GB of VRAM. Also, the company's open models are among the most popular and widely adopted worldwide, with thousands of businesses incorporating them into creative workflows. Stability AI's success is built on making these advanced AI tools accessible to a broad audience, from individual creators to large enterprises. "James Cameron lives in the future and waits for the rest of us to catch up," said Prem Akkaraju, CEO of Stability AI. "Stability AI's mission is to transform visual media for the next century by giving creators a full stack AI pipeline to bring their ideas to life. We have an unmatched advantage to achieve this goal with a technological and creative visionary like James at the highest levels of our company. This is not only a monumental statement for Stability AI, but the AI industry overall." While James Cameron seems to endorse generative AI right now, he was not always fond of artificial general intelligence (AGI). Cameron's Terminator and Terminator 2 movies directly warn the world about the dangers of AI and the potential rise of machines. Yet, for now, it looks like he endorses generative AI, which does not pose an immediate threat to humanity. However, other content creators criticize it heavily as generation AI learns from content created by human beings, who may eventually lose their jobs. Then again, now that Cameron is on the Stability AI board, he may have an influence on the future development of generative AI. "The next frontier in visual media will be forged by a true fusion of artist and technology, and Stability AI is leading the charge," Akkaraju added.

James Cameron once warned us about AI. Now he's joined an AI company's board.

Famed sci-fi director joins board of embattled Stability AI, creator of Stable Diffusion. On Tuesday, Stability AI announced that renowned filmmaker James Cameron -- of Terminator and Skynet fame -- has joined its board of directors. Stability is best known for its pioneering but highly controversial Stable Diffusion series of AI image-synthesis models, first launched in 2022, which can generate images based on text descriptions. Further Reading "I've spent my career seeking out emerging technologies that push the very boundaries of what's possible, all in the service of telling incredible stories," said Cameron in a statement. "I was at the forefront of CGI over three decades ago, and I've stayed on the cutting edge since. Now, the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave." Cameron is perhaps best known as the director behind blockbusters like Avatar, Titanic, and Aliens, but in AI circles, he may be most relevant for the co-creation of the character Skynet, a fictional AI system that triggers nuclear Armageddon and dominates humanity in the Terminator media franchise. Similar fears of AI taking over the world have since jumped into reality and recently sparked attempts to regulate existential risk from AI systems through measures like SB-1047 in California. In a 2023 interview with CTV news, Cameron referenced The Terminator's release year when asked about AI's dangers: "I warned you guys in 1984, and you didn't listen," he said. "I think the weaponization of AI is the biggest danger. I think that we will get into the equivalent of a nuclear arms race with AI, and if we don't build it, the other guys are for sure going to build it, and so then it'll escalate." Hollywood goes AI Of course, Stability AI isn't building weapons controlled by AI. Instead, Cameron's interest in cutting-edge filmmaking techniques apparently drew him to the company. "James Cameron lives in the future and waits for the rest of us to catch up," said Stability CEO Prem Akkaraju. "Stability AI's mission is to transform visual media for the next century by giving creators a full stack AI pipeline to bring their ideas to life. We have an unmatched advantage to achieve this goal with a technological and creative visionary like James at the highest levels of our company. This is not only a monumental statement for Stability AI, but the AI industry overall." Cameron joins other recent additions to Stability AI's board, including Sean Parker, former president of Facebook, who serves as executive chairman. Parker called Cameron's appointment "the start of a new chapter" for the company. Despite significant protest from actors' unions last year, elements of Hollywood are seemingly beginning to embrace generative AI over time. On Wednesday, we covered a deal between Lionsgate and AI video-generation company Runway that will see the creation of a custom AI model for film production use. In March, the Financial Times reported that OpenAI was actively showing off its Sora video synthesis model to studio executives. Unstable times for Stability AI Cameron's appointment to the Stability AI board comes during a tumultuous period for the company. Stability AI has faced a series of challenges this past year, including an ongoing class-action copyright lawsuit, a troubled Stable Diffusion 3 model launch, significant leadership and staff changes, and ongoing financial concerns. Further Reading In March, founder and CEO Emad Mostaque resigned, followed by a round of layoffs. This came on the heels of the departure of three key engineers -- Robin Rombach, Andreas Blattmann, and Dominik Lorenz, who have since founded Black Forest Labs and released a new open-weights image-synthesis model called Flux, which has begun to take over the r/StableDiffusion community on Reddit. Despite the issues, Stability AI claims its models are widely used, with Stable Diffusion reportedly surpassing 150 million downloads. The company states that thousands of businesses use its models in their creative workflows. While Stable Diffusion has indeed spawned a large community of open-weights-AI image enthusiasts online, it has also been a lightning rod for controversy among some artists because Stability originally trained its models on hundreds of millions of images scraped from the Internet without seeking licenses or permission to use them. Apparently that association is not a concern for Cameron, according to his statement: "The convergence of these two totally different engines of creation [CGI and generative AI] will unlock new ways for artists to tell stories in ways we could have never imagined. Stability AI is poised to lead this transformation."

'Terminator' Director James Cameron Joins Stability AI Board of Directors - Decrypt

Oscar-winning filmmaker James Cameron made his name dramatizing the perils of superintelligent AI with "The Terminator" -- and now he's joining the board of artificial intelligence firm Stability AI. "I was at the forefront of CGI over three decades ago, and I've stayed on the cutting edge since," Cameron said in a statement accompanying the news. "Now, the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave." He added that, "I've spent my career seeking out emerging technologies that push the very boundaries of what's possible, all in the service of telling incredible stories." Stability AI provides an AI-based image and video generation tool, Diffusion AI, which competes with tools like Midjourney and Flux. It's one of the world's most popular generative AI tools and reportedly has over 150 million downloads. The San Francisco-based company is valued at roughly $1 billion after scoring $233 million over five funding rounds. It is widely used within the film and special effects industry, where Cameron has had an illustrious career. His films include the Oscar-winning "Titanic," along with "The Terminator," "Aliens," "The Abyss,"and the "Avatar" film series. In total his films have grossed roughly $9 billion -- the second most of any director. Cameron pioneered the use of computer-generated visual effects in "The Abyss" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," and performance capture in "Avatar" and its sequel. In the "Terminator" franchise, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, a super-intelligent AI called Skynet rebels against humanity and sends killer robots back in time to kill its nemesis John Connor. Stability AI said that Cameron's artist-centric perspective, paired with his business and technical acumen, will help the company to unlock new opportunities to "empower creators to tell stories in ways once unimaginable". The director added that the "convergence of these two totally different engines of creation will unlock new ways for artists to tell stories in ways we could have never imagined." Cameron isn't the only big name now set to join the firm's board. Sean Parker, an earlier investor in Facebook who served as President of the company, will now become Stability AI's Executive Chairman. In addition, Dana Settle, co-founder and managing partner of investment firm Greycroft, and Colin Bryant, COO and general partner of Coatue Management will also join the board. The influx of fresh new executive talent comes as Stability AI has seen some big internal changes; in June, it appointed Prem Akkaraju, a former CEO of visual effects company Weta Digital, as its new CEO. Cameron has previously criticized AI, expressing concern that it could pose a threat to humanity. "I warned you guys in 1984, and you didn't listen," he told CTV News in July 2023, harking back to "The Terminator." The director also expressed skepticism over the potential of AI to replace human creatives, describing it as a "disembodied mind that's just regurgitating what other embodied minds have said," and arguing that it lacks "something that's going to move an audience." Cameron added that he "certainly wouldn't be interested" in AI writing his scripts, but said if "an AI wins an Oscar for Best Screenplay, I think we've got to take them seriously."

James Cameron Joins Stability AI Board of Directors

Legendary filmmaker James Cameron has joined the board of directors of Stability AI. In a press release published on Tuesday, Stability AI -- the company behind Stable Diffusion -- announced that the Titanic director had signed a deal to become the newest member of its executive leadership team. "James Cameron lives in the future and waits for the rest of us to catch up," Prem Akkaraju -- who was appointed as Stability AI CEO in June -- says in a statement. "Stability AI's mission is to transform visual media for the next century by giving creators a full stack AI pipeline to bring their ideas to life. "We have an unmatched advantage to achieve this goal with a technological and creative visionary like James at the highest levels of our company. This is not only a monumental statement for Stability AI, but the AI industry overall." Cameron was among the earliest filmmakers to embrace the potential of computer-generated images (CGI) and he has continued to use it in movies such as the special effects-heavy Avatar franchise to move the field of visual effects forward. According to Stability AI, Cameron's role in the company will center around how AI technology can be used in special effects and CGI in filmmaking. "I've spent my career seeking out emerging technologies that push the very boundaries of what's possible, all in the service of telling incredible stories," Cameron says. "I was at the forefront of CGI over three decades ago, and I've stayed on the cutting edge since. "Now, the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave." Cameron's appointment on the board of directors comes as major Hollywood studios begin embracing AI technology. Earlier this month, Lionsgate announced a partnership with AI video company Runway that will see a custom video model trained on the Hollywood studio's extensive catalog. However, AI technology is still considered highly controversial by many filmmakers and movie fans alike. Runway and Lionsgate's announcement came in the wake of California Governor Gavin Newsom signing two bills into law that will protect actors and performers from unauthorized AI clones. The laws aim to protect actors from AI replicas of their likeness or voice being used without their consent. Cameron joins Stability AI following reports of chaos at the company in recent months. In March, Stability AI was rumored to be in trouble after three researchers who developed Stable Diffusion left the company, following a number of executives out the door. A week later, Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque resigned from the company. Then, in June, Stability AI released Stable Diffusion 3 Medium (SD3M) calling it "our most sophisticated image generation model to date." However, the text-to-image model was mocked by real-world users.

Avatar director James Cameron joins the board of Stability AI, will use AI in future filmmaking

Stability AI has just announced that legendary filmmaker, technology innovator, and visual effects pioneer James Cameron has joined its Board of Directors. Stability AI is the team behind the infamous Stable Diffusion AI model, with Cameron stepping up into the board of Stability AI as a driving force in cutting-edge technology with visionary storytelling, said the AI startup in its press release. Cameron joining the Stability AI team represents a "represents a significant step forward in Stability AI's mission to transform visual media. Both Cameron and Stability AI operate at the intersection of emerging technology and creativity. Cameron's artist-centric perspective, paired with his business and technical acumen, will support Stability AI in continuing to unlock new opportunities to empower creators to tell stories in ways once unimaginable". CEO of Stability AI, Prem Akkaraju, said: "James Cameron lives in the future and waits for the rest of us to catch up. Stability AI's mission is to transform visual media for the next century by giving creators a full stack AI pipeline to bring their ideas to life. We have an unmatched advantage to achieve this goal with a technological and creative visionary like James at the highest levels of our company. This is not only a monumental statement for Stability AI, but the AI industry overall. The next frontier in visual media will be forged by a true fusion of artist and technology and Stability AI is leading the charge". James Cameron, Chair of LIGHTSTORM and Board Member of Stability AI, said: "I've spent my career seeking out emerging technologies that push the very boundaries of what's possible, all in the service of telling incredible stories. I was at the forefront of CGI over three decades ago, and I've stayed on the cutting edge since. Now, the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave".

'Titanic' director James Cameron joins Stability AI board

Stability AI said on Tuesday James Cameron, the director of "Titanic" and "The Terminator" movies, had joined the artificial intelligence startup's board. The meteoric rise of generative AI has drawn Hollywood's attention at a time when production costs have surged. After OpenAI's text-to-video tool Sora created waves in February with its high-quality videos, Hollywood executives and agents met with the company to discuss potential uses for the technology, industry insiders had said. Cameron's appointment takes Stability AI closer to its goal to "transform visual media" by providing creators with a full portfolio of AI tools, CEO Prem Akkaraju said. London-based Stability AI, which raised about $80 million in funding earlier this year, makes an artificial intelligence image-generation tool that rivals those made by Alphabet's Google and Microsoft-backed OpenAI. The firm raised $101 million in a seed round led by Coatue Management and Lightspeed Venture Partners at a $1 billion valuation in 2022. Stability AI also provides Stable Video Diffusion, a text-to-video generation tool. Cameron said the intersection of GenAI and computer-generated imagery will "unlock new ways for artists to tell stories in ways we could have never imagined." Hollywood's relationship with AI has not been smooth sailing, however. A major reason for writers and actors going on strike in 2023 was to seek protection for their images and their craft from the unregulated use of AI, with limits on how studios can use the technology when making movies and TV shows. Cameron joined other newly appointed Stability AI board members, including former Facebook President Sean Parker, who serves as executive chairman of the company.

'Titanic' director James Cameron joins Stability AI board

(Reuters) -Stability AI said on Tuesday James Cameron, the director of "Titanic" and "The Terminator" movies, had joined the artificial intelligence startup's board. The meteoric rise of generative AI has drawn Hollywood's attention at a time when production costs have surged. After OpenAI's text-to-video tool Sora created waves in February with its high-quality videos, Hollywood executives and agents met with the company to discuss potential uses for the technology, industry insiders had said. Cameron's appointment takes Stability AI closer to its goal to "transform visual media" by providing creators with a full portfolio of AI tools, CEO Prem Akkaraju said. London-based Stability AI, which raised about $80 million in funding earlier this year, makes an artificial intelligence image-generation tool that rivals those made by Alphabet's Google and Microsoft-backed OpenAI. The firm raised $101 million in a seed round led by Coatue Management and Lightspeed Venture Partners at a $1 billion valuation in 2022. Stability AI also provides Stable Video Diffusion, a text-to-video generation tool. Cameron said the intersection of GenAI and computer-generated imagery will "unlock new ways for artists to tell stories in ways we could have never imagined." Hollywood's relationship with AI has not been smooth sailing, however. A major reason for writers and actors going on strike in 2023 was to seek protection for their images and their craft from the unregulated use of AI, with limits on how studios can use the technology when making movies and TV shows. Cameron joined other newly appointed Stability AI board members, including former Facebook President Sean Parker, who serves as executive chairman of the company. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Alan Barona)

James Cameron joining Stability AI isn't quite the U-turn it's being painted as

The Terminator director has always aimed to stay at the cutting edge of tech. On the face of it, the filmmaker James Cameron seems to have changed his mind about AI. Just over a year ago, the director of The Terminator, Avatar and Titanic was concerned that the tech was a danger to humanity. Now he's joined the board of Stability AI, the company behind the open-source AI image generator Stable Diffusion. But it isn't necessarily the about-turn that it might seem. AI is a vast area of technology that's being applied to everything from defence to health care. When Cameron spoke of the dangers of AI, he wasn't specifically referring to generative AI for imagery and video. And it was perhaps inevitable that a director who's always aimed to be at the cutting edge of tech would be interested in how AI could change filmmaking, if only to maintain his reputation as an innovator. But it does set up something of a battle in the industry. Announcing Cameron's appointment to the board, Stability AI CEO Prem Akkaraju said that "James Cameron lives in the future and waits for the rest of us to catch up." He added that having Cameron on board gave the company an "unmatched advantage" to achieve its goal of transforming visual media for the next century "by giving creators a full stack AI pipeline to bring their ideas to life". Stability AI's post about the appointment on X was greeted with a barrage of rocket icons and generic comments that "the future begins here" and "it's happening". Until one person pointed out: "Didn't James Cameron make the terminator?" Indeed, he did. And Cameron himself has pointed out the parallels with the film, in which the AI Skynet turns on humankind. When he was asked in an interview with CTV in July of last year about how early AI pioneers were raising concerns about advances in the technology, he replied: "I absolutely share their concern. I warned you guys in 1984, and you didn't listen." At that point, Cameron said he "certainly wouldn't be interested" in AI writing his scripts, but that doesn't mean he didn't already see potential in other areas. In a conversation with Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost in April, Cameron said he thought AI could be helpful in filmmaking "because it can fill in some of those detail levels and allow us as artists to stay at a higher level." He also seemed to suggest that it could help make a film "cheaper, faster and more efficiently". Of his decision to join Stability AI, Cameron says: "I've spent my career seeking out emerging technologies that push the very boundaries of what's possible, all in the service of telling incredible stories. I was at the forefront of CGI over three decades ago, and I've stayed on the cutting edge since. Now, the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave." The news of Cameron joining AI comes just days after John Wick maker Lionsgate announced that it would create an in-house AI video generator with Runway trained on its own back catalogue. But many filmmakers remain fiercely opposed to the use of generative AI. The Transformers director Michael Bay has claimed that AI "doesn't create, it just imitates. And it will create a whole bunch of lazy people." Hiyao Miyazaki, the writer and directer of Studio Ghibli classics like Spirited Away, has gone further, calling AI-generated video "an insult to life itself". But the uses of generative AI in filmmaking aren't limited to all-out image generation. The most practical benefits are more likely to be in editing, effects. During our AI Week back in June, Lightricks CEO Zeev Farbman assured us that he didn't think AI would replace filmmakers but that it would streamline expensive and tedious tasks, allowing filmmakers to devote more time to other parts of filmmaking like shooting A-roll and creating major special effects.

Terminator creator James Cameron joins board of AI company

Filmmaker James Cameron has joined the board of directors of artificial intelligence (AI) firm StabilityAI, 40 years after making a film about its risks. In 1984's The Terminator, which Cameron wrote and directed, a rogue AI called Skynet threatens the existence of mankind. But the creator of the fictional AI has not been hired to help avoid such tech being developed in real life. Instead, his role will centre around how the technology can be used in special effects, also known as computer-generated images (CGI). "I've spent my career seeking out emerging technologies that push the very boundaries of what's possible, all in the service of telling incredible stories," he said. "I was at the forefront of CGI over three decades ago, and I've stayed on the cutting edge since. "Now, the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave." Amongst his long list of hit movies, Cameron is known for creating special effects-heavy Avatar, the highest-grossing film of all time. His new place of work, StabilityAI, is best known for making Stable Diffusion - which can generate images based on a user's text prompt. It is also branching out into video, with Stable Video Diffusion, which works in the same way. It is this tech that Cameron seems to have been brought on to help develop. Proponents of AI video generation say it will enable artists to quickly create complicated digital effects. But for many creatives - and Cameron's contemporaries - this use of the technology is considered controversial at best. Last week, Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro criticised AI-generated video during a talk at the British Film Institute in London, saying it could not generate much beyond "semi-compelling screensavers". Michael Bay said last year the tech "will create a whole bunch of lazy people" because "it doesn't create, it just imitates". And Hiyao Miyazaki, who wrote and directed animated classic Spirited Away, previously said he was "disgusted" by an AI-generated video and called it "an insult to life itself".

'Titanic' director James Cameron joins Stability AI board

Stability AI said on Tuesday that James Cameron, the director of "Titanic" and "The Terminator" movies, had joined the artificial intelligence startup's board. The meteoric rise of generative AI has drawn Hollywood's attention at a time when production costs have surged. After OpenAI's text-to-video tool Sora created waves in February with its high-quality videos, Hollywood executives and agents met with the company to discuss potential uses for the technology, industry insiders had said. Cameron's appointment takes Stability AI closer to its goal to "transform visual media" by providing creators with a full portfolio of AI tools, CEO Prem Akkaraju said. Stable Diffusion text-to-image tech allegedly used to create child abuse media and victimise a teenager London-based Stability AI, which raised about $80 million in funding earlier this year, makes an artificial intelligence image-generation tool that rivals those made by Alphabet's Google and Microsoft-backed OpenAI. The firm raised $101 million in a seed round led by Coatue Management and Lightspeed Venture Partners at a $1 billion valuation in 2022. Stability AI also provides Stable Video Diffusion, a text-to-video generation tool. Cameron said the intersection of GenAI and computer-generated imagery will "unlock new ways for artists to tell stories in ways we could have never imagined." Hollywood's relationship with AI has not been smooth sailing, however. A major reason for writers and actors going on strike in 2023 was to seek protection for their images and their craft from the unregulated use of AI, with limits on how studios can use the technology when making movies and TV shows. Cameron joined other newly appointed Stability AI board members, including former Facebook President Sean Parker, who serves as executive chairman of the company. Published - September 25, 2024 09:52 am IST Read Comments

Terminator director recruited by British rival to OpenAI in bid to woo Hollywood

James Cameron's addition to Stability AI's board comes amid a leadership reshuffle Matthew Field Senior Technology Reporter 24 September 2024 5:42pm James Cameron, the creator of The Terminator franchise, has joined forces with a British start-up developing artificial intelligence (AI) technology as it seeks to win over Hollywood. The veteran filmmaker, who once said that AI could one day do his job, has been appointed to the board of Stability AI, which develops tools for creating images and videos using algorithms. The appointment comes amid fears among actors, writers and animators that AI bots, which can generate photorealistic videos or mimic voices, could eventually replace them. A wave of Hollywood actors strikes last year paralysed the film and television industry amid fears their work could be replaced by machines. Mr Cameron, who also directed Titanic and Avatar and won critical acclaim for his use of visual effects and computer generated imagery, joins Stability AI weeks after it secured critical funding and underwent a major executive reshuffle. The UK rival to Silicon Valley giant OpenAI is known for its Stable Diffusion technology, one of the most popular tools used to create AI images. It has also developed audio and video-generating AI products. However, it has burned through tens of millions of pounds amid a struggle to make money from its tools, while the business has been locked in copyright disputes with artists over how its AI was developed. It was valued at $1bn in 2022. Stability AI's founder, Emad Mostaque, left the business in March as it raced to secure fresh funding. Stability AI has since hired a new chief executive, Prem Akkaraju, the former boss of New Zealand visual effects company Weta FX, which produced The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Mr Cameron's Avatar. It also added Sean Parker, the former Facebook president, as its chairman. Mr Cameron, who is chairman of production company Lightstorm, said Stability AI's technology could "unlock new ways for artists to tell stories in ways we could never have imagined". It is understood Mr Cameron has also taken a small equity stake in the business. Despite concerns from actors about the threat of AI, the Canadian filmmaker has hailed the potential of the technology in the film industry. He told the Financial Times earlier this year that if an AI system was suitably advanced "who's to say that is not an artist". He added: "We've been doing art since we had consciousness, so why can't an AGI [artificial general intelligence system] do it at that point -- write a script, direct a movie, do whatever?" However, he has also warned about the risks posed by the "weaponisation of AI" - as in his film The Terminator. In The Terminator, the AI defence system Skynet becomes self-aware and unleashes nuclear weapons against humanity. Arnold Schwarzenegger's character, a humanoid robot, is sent back in time to assassinate the mother of a future leader of the resistance against the AI superintelligence. Mr Parker said: "James Cameron is a legend, both for his artistic vision as a filmmaker and his role as a pioneering technologist. Having an artist of his calibre with a seat at the table marks the start of a new chapter for Stability AI. "We're incredibly excited by the limitless potential for creative collaboration between generative media platforms and the artistic community."

'Titanic' Director James Cameron Joins Stability AI Board

(Reuters) - Stability AI said on Tuesday James Cameron, the director of "Titanic" and "The Terminator" movies, had joined the artificial intelligence startup's board. GenAI's meteoric rise has drawn Hollywood's attention at a time when production costs have surged. After OpenAI's text-to-video tool Sora created waves in February with its high-quality videos, Hollywood executives and agents met with the company to discuss potential uses for the technology, industry insiders had said. Cameron's appointment takes Stability AI closer to its goal to "transform visual media" by providing creators with a full portfolio of AI tools, CEO Prem Akkaraju said. London-based Stability AI, which raised about $80 million in funding earlier this year, makes an artificial intelligence image-generation tool that rivals those made by Alphabet's Google and Microsoft-backed OpenAI. It also provides Stable Video Diffusion, a text-to-video generation tool. Cameron said the intersection of GenAI and computer-generated imagery will "unlock new ways for artists to tell stories in ways we could have never imagined". Hollywood's relationship with AI has not been smooth sailing, however. A major reason that writers and actors went on strike in 2023 was to seek protections for their images and their craft from the unregulated use of AI, with limits on how studios can use the technology when making movies and TV shows. Cameron will join other newly appointed Stability AI board members, including former Facebook President Sean Parker, who serves as executive chairman of the company. Stability AI had raised $101 million in a seed round led by Coatue Management and Lightspeed Venture Partners at a $1 billion valuation in 2022, but has since been struggling to raise more funds due to the lack of a business model. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

James Cameron Joins Board of AI Company, and Fans Are Not Happy

11 WTF Moments From 'Character Limit,' the Book About How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter Since the 1980s, director James Cameron has pushed the limits of visual effects in his blockbusters, from the Terminator and Avatar franchises to The Abyss and Titanic. The innovations that made these movies possible have also made him a beloved, acclaimed, and very wealthy artist. But his latest technological jump has rubbed many fans the wrong way: Cameron this week officially joined the board of the artificial intelligence company Stability AI, which created and operates the generative text-to-image model Stable Diffusion. "I've spent my career seeking out emerging technologies that push the very boundaries of what's possible, all in the service of telling incredible stories," Cameron said in a statement. "I was at the forefront of CGI over three decades ago, and I've stayed on the cutting edge since. Now, the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave. The convergence of these two totally different engines of creation will unlock new ways for artists to tell stories in ways we could have never imagined. Stability AI is poised to lead this transformation." Cinephiles were quick to register their disappointment at the legendary director's latest foray into futurism. "James Cameron is one of the most powerful filmmakers on earth," wrote a popular YouTube video essayist on X (formerly Twitter), explaining that the director "supporting AI is incredibly depressing for the future of cinema because studios actually do listen and follow him." Actor and film critic Emmy Potter tweeted, "I keep thinking about how [Cameron] cut his teeth making models & other practical effects for [director/producer] Roger Corman & how that kind of human ingenuity is the exact stuff these AI guys completely devalue & want to replace with slop." Quipped another X user, "At the end of the day James Cameron is a seventy year-old rich white liberal who is friends with Bill Gates so [to be quite honest] I'm not surprised." Others, meanwhile, defended Cameron based on some of his comments last year around AI, in which he noted that that these models cannot understand art as humans can and stressed that the technology should not be "replacing us in a false way." The application of AI in cinema has been a contentious issue in Hollywood, to say the least, and Cameron appears to be siding with executives over the creatives. One reason the Writers Guild of America went on strike last year is that the studios and streamers refused writers' demands for terms that strictly limited the use of AI in creating scripts and forbade the training of AI models on their original material. The actors union SAG-AFTRA later joined the strike in part due to performers' concerns about the studios leveraging AI to create digital doppelgängers of them. When the strikes came to an end with negotiated deals, many labor activists felt that the AI guardrails settled upon were still not good enough: the studios may yet train AI on existing written material, while actors have said they continue to face pressure to sign over the rights to their own likenesses in contracts. Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law two new bills designed to protect actors from the potential harms of AI; the state is home not just to the entertainment stronghold of Los Angeles but a majority of the top AI firms in the world. The first piece of legislation allows performers to exit contracts with murky language that might permit a studio to "clone" their image or voice. The second prohibits the cloning of dead actors without permission from their estates. This week, more than 120 prominent creatives, including musicians, directors and producers, signed an open letter urging Newsom to go further by signing another bill, SB 1047, that has already passed both chambers of the state legislature. It would impose broad regulations on AI companies, requiring them to conduct extensive safety testing before releasing new models, and to have reliable protocols for shutting models off in emergencies. The bill also enacts whistleblower protections for insiders at these companies. Among the signatories of the letter from "Artists for Safe AI" were Mark Ruffalo, J.J. Abrams, Pedro Pascal, Shonda Rhimes, Jean Smart, Ramy Youssef, Alex Winter, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Mark Hamill, Don Cheadle, and SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher. Clearly, though, Cameron sees more promise than problems in a blending of AI and other approaches to filmmaking -- despite the Terminator films being cautionary tales about killer AI run amok. As Prem Akkaraju, CEO of Stability AI, put it in his own statement: "This is not only a monumental statement for Stability AI, but the AI industry overall. The next frontier in visual media will be forged by a true fusion of artist and technology, and Stability AI is leading the charge." Akkaraju was formerly CEO of Weta Digital (now Wētā FX), a New Zealand visual effects and animation company that has worked on the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Cameron's Avatar series. Cameron comes aboard at Stability with several other newly appointed board members, including executive chair Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster and former president of Facebook. In an interview Tuesday on CNBC, he said his personal relationships of "mutual respect" with Parker and Akkaraju influenced him to join the company's leadership. "We sit at a unique nexus between big tech and gen AI on the one hand, and on the CGI workflows associated with movie and TV visual effects," he said. "That's a unique trade space to be in, because we all think that the next big leap forward it going to be to find a commonality, a common platform between those two fields." It remains to be seen whether Cameron will have any response to the AI skeptics who have made their cause a primary point of tension in 21st-century Hollywood. (He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) But the accomplished director is hardly one to be cowed by industry consensus, as many of his risky, outlandish, and mind-bogglingly expensive film projects have proven. At any rate, he has already embraced the technology for himself, having experimented for years with AI models at different stages of production on 2022's Avatar: The Way of Water, as well as forthcoming sequels. More than a few on social media observed that this phase of his career was entirely predictable, given his lifelong passion for advancing the tools of his trade.

'Titanic' director James Cameron joins Stability AI board

Cameron's appointment takes Stability AI closer to its goal to "transform visual media" by providing creators with a full portfolio of AI tools, CEO Prem Akkaraju said. London-based Stability AI, which raised about $80 million in funding earlier this year, makes an artificial intelligence image-generation tool that rivals those made by Alphabet's Google and Microsoft-backed OpenAI. It also provides Stable Video Diffusion, a text-to-video generation tool. Cameron said the intersection of GenAI and computer-generated imagery will "unlock new ways for artists to tell stories in ways we could have never imagined". Hollywood's relationship with AI has not been smooth sailing, however. A major reason that writers and actors went on strike in 2023 was to seek protections for their images and their craft from the unregulated use of AI, with limits on how studios can use the technology when making movies and TV shows. Cameron will join other newly appointed Stability AI board members, including former Facebook President Sean Parker, who serves as executive chairman of the company. Stability AI had raised $101 million in a seed round led by Coatue Management and Lightspeed Venture Partners at a $1 billion valuation in 2022, but has since been struggling to raise more funds due to the lack of a business model. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

AI video gains boost from prominent filmmakers James Cameron, Andy Serkis

So it raised more than a few eyebrows and dropped quite a few jaws today when he announced that he was joining the board of Stability AI, the company founded upon and responsible for developing the original Stable Diffusion open source AI diffusion model that underpins most generative AI video and image making products to this day. As Stability AI announced in a press release today, Cameron will join the board alongside Dana Settle, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Greycroft; Colin Bryant, COO and General Partner of Coatue Management; and Sean Parker, entrepreneur and former President of Facebook, who serves as Executive Chairman. The news comes as a big victory and vote of confidence in Stability AI, which has endured a rocky year including reports of financial mismanagement and cost overruns by its prior CEO and co-founder Emad Mostaque, who ultimately resigned from the company in March 2024 following the negative press and questions about his leadership. He was succeeded initially by co-interim CEOs Shan Shan Wong (COO) and Christian Laforte (CTO), before being replaced by Prem Akkaraju, former CEO of visual effects company Weta Digital. Why Cameron is linking up with Stability AI now Cameron said his interest in joining was spurred by the creative potential of AI in filmmaking, especially when combined with more traditional/existing computer generated imagery (CGI) technology, in which computer artists manually draw and program character designs, settings, and effects for all manner and genre of films. As the Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Aliens, Abyss, and True Lies director put it in a statement included in the release: "I've spent my career seeking out emerging technologies that push the very boundaries of what's possible, all in the service of telling incredible stories. I was at the forefront of CGI over three decades ago, and I've stayed on the cutting edge since. Now, the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave. The convergence of these two totally different engines of creation will unlock new ways for artists to tell stories in ways we could have never imagined. Stability AI is poised to lead this transformation." Indeed, it should be no surprise that Cameron of all filmmakers would embrace AI given his prior embrace of other, at the time, cutting-edge and newfangled tech revolutions, including 3D scanning for motion capture, as VentureBeat previously covered last year. Cameron has also recently been upscaling and remastering some of his older works including True Lies in 4K, to the chagrin of some viewers and critics who say the results are -- similarly to his contemporary George Lucas's Star Wars Special Edition remasters, unnecessary and ultimately degrading to the quality and integrity of the original films. To which Cameron has issued his characteristic blunt and unapologetic dismissals. Parker highlighted Cameron's addition as a pivotal moment for the company, stating, "Having an artist of his caliber with a seat at the table marks the start of a new chapter for Stability AI. We're incredibly excited by the limitless potential for creative collaboration between generative media platforms and the artistic community." On X and social media writ large, the reactions were decidedly more mixed. While many up-and-coming amateur and indie AI filmmakers celebrated the news of one of the most iconic directors embracing their new medium for its storytelling potential, others who have worked in more traditional filmmaking or have previously criticized AI for what they see as the exploitative nature of how it was trained -- on data scraped en masse from the web, including potentially copyrighted works of other human artists without express permission -- expressed their disappointment and disapproval in Cameron's decision. And many pointed to the fact that Cameron previously relied on Weta Digital, the New Zealand special effects firm co-founded by his peer and friend director Peter Jackson (of the Lord of the Rings blockbusters in the early 2000s), for his effects, especially in the new Avatar: The Way of Water and upcoming films. Given Stability AI's new CEO, Prem Akkaraju was formerly CEO of Weta, it seems natural and sensible to conclude that Akkaraju -- and perhaps others who have worked for or with Weta, including Jackson -- may have influenced or swayed Cameron to join up with Stability now. Another Weta collaborator embraces AI: Andy Serkis Andy Serkis, the New Zealand actor famed for his motion capture work in performances including Gollum in Peter Jackson's aforementioned Lord of the Rings trilogy and its Hobbit spinoff movies, as well as the intelligent ape Cesar in the new Rise of the Planet of the Apes films, and director in his own right of Sony's Venom: Let There Be Carnage, is also jumping headfirst into the AI filmmaking fray. As reported in Hollywood trade magazine Deadline yesterday, Serkis allegedly told UK lawmakers his production company Imaginarium is: working on a "narrative driven story" that kicks off with 2D characters created using voice actors before they "come out into the AR [augmented reality] world." "At that point they become 'AI characters' authored by artists and directors," Serkis told a panel at the UK's Labour Party conference. "They are in a world where you can have direct relationships with these CGI characters." The project sounds very conceptual and experimental, but Serkis's willingness to embrace AI shows yet another high-profile name on the cutting-edge of Hollywood is taking the tech seriously for its creative potential. A new era in filmmaking emerges The news of Serkis and Cameron embracing AI comes on the heels last week of the industry-rattling news that film studio Lionsgate (maker of the John Wick, Twilight, and Hunger Games franchises, among many other films) was partnering with AI startup Runway to train a custom model of Runway's Gen-3 Alpha video AI generation model on Lionsgate's catalog of 20,000-plus titles. Lionsgate said at the time it plans to use the custom model to develop storyboards, concepts, and special effects for new films. Also today, the Dor Brothers, an AI filmmaking collaborative known for their unsettlingly and often hilariously realistic satires of politicians gang-banging and toting guns and committing criminal acts, published the first all-AI video featuring a likeness of rapper Snoop Dogg, done in collaboration with him. So even as AI model providers such as Runway face down class action lawsuits by human visual artists for training on their work without express consent or permission -- which the artists accuse of violating copyrights -- it seems some of the biggest names in Hollywood and entertainment writ large are hopping on the AI video train. As I've argued before, those looking to work in these creative industries would do well to start experimenting with the tech now, lest they risk being left behind. And again, the tech is already available to enterprises far beyond Hollywood. Now the playing field is more evenly matched, with individuals and companies having access to AI video generation models for use in making advertisements, internal communications and training videos, branding videos, concepts, and more.

James Cameron is joining Stability AI's board of directors

Today, Stability AI -- the company behind Stable Diffusion -- announced that Cameron has signed a deal to become the newest member of its executive leadership. In a statement, CEO Prem Akkaraju described Cameron's coming on as "monumental statement" for the AI industry as a whole, and described the director as someone who lives in the future and waits for the rest of us to catch up." Cameron cited his long history of experimenting with emerging technologies as part of what inspired him to join Stability AI's ranks, and pointed to "the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation" as the next big breakthrough set to revolutionize the filmmaking industry.