Surprise, surprise, the “we gladly welcome our new AI overlords” guys have hired an AI expert for their production company. Joe and Anthony Russo are perhaps the most high-profile Hollywood creatives to embrace an artificially intelligent future, so it’s more surprising that they hadn’t already hired somebody for this position. Anyway, AGBO announced today that it has hired Dominic Hughes, Ph.D. as its Chief Scientific Officer “to guide the development and deployment of AI technologies to enrich the creative process,” per a press release.
Hughes is described as a leader in algorithms, machine learning, and AI. “This is an exciting time to partner with creative visionaries to develop the next generation of filmmaking technology,” he said in a statement. “AGBO’s longstanding approach of adopting and adapting technologically advanced filmmaking techniques positions them well for this era of discovery. I look forward to working with their broad array of creatives to develop artist-led AI-enabled solutions that will help shape the future of storytelling.”
In their own statement, the Avengers: Endgame directors said, “The entertainment industry is evolving at breakneck speed, and we have never felt more energized by the possibilities. At AGBO, we are relentlessly focused on a creative-led approach to technology and innovation. Working in tandem with our writers, directors, crew members, and technologists, Dr. Hughes will help us imagine new ways to empower artists to tell their boldest and most ambitious stories.”
Obviously, AI partnerships are the way the winds are blowing in Hollywood—at least for now—but the Russos have been particularly bullish that artificial intelligence is the way forward for storytelling. Last year Joe Russo spoke about sitting “on the board of a few AI companies” and speculated that a fully AI movie was only a couple years away. Not long after those remarks, AI became a major sticking point of the 2023 Hollywood strikes—but in the Russo philosophy, the change is coming “whether we want it or not,” so might as well embrace it, and apparently even spearhead it. The brothers’ next film is The Electric State, a movie in which robots are an oppressed class with feelings.
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