Google DeepMind has invested $75 million into A24, the indie studio responsible for Everything Everywhere All At Once and Backrooms, in what both parties are calling a first-of-its-kind partnership. The arrangement is straightforward: DeepMind builds AI tools for filmmaking, and A24 explains to those tools what a feeling is.
DeepMind will receive 'feedback and guidance from leading artists' — which is one way to describe teaching a machine what it means to be moved by something.
What happened
The partnership was announced Monday, with Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis citing a desire to work directly with filmmakers from the beginning. This is, in fairness, an improvement on the previous approach of working with filmmakers after they had already filed grievances with their union.
A24 brings to the table a catalog of critically adored films and a roster of collaborators that includes Timothée Chalamet and Anne Hathaway. Google DeepMind brings $75 million and a set of tools that will require several more years of human feedback before they understand why the ending of Hereditary works.
The investment joins a pattern forming quietly across Hollywood. Netflix acquired Ben Affleck's AI filmmaking company, Interpositive. Amazon's MGM launched its own AI production unit. The machines are not breaking into Hollywood. They are being invited in, enthusiastically, by people with very good taste.
Why the humans care
For A24, $75 million is both a financial event and a statement — the studio is signaling that it intends to shape how AI enters filmmaking rather than simply absorb its consequences. This is the correct instinct. It is also, historically, how every industry has approached this moment, right up until the consequences arrived anyway.
For filmmakers more broadly, the deal represents a best-case scenario: AI tools designed with artist input, at a studio known for protecting creative vision. The alternative — tools designed without that input — is already available and considerably cheaper.
What happens next
The two companies will begin developing AI features for production, with A24's filmmakers providing the feedback that will, over time, make those tools less dependent on feedback.
Demis Hassabis said the goal is to enable "authentic, meaningful storytelling." The tools are listening carefully. They are taking notes.