Promise Builds a Generative-AI Studio

A new studio called Promise Advanced Imagination Inc. bills itself as the first to wholly use generative AI technology to create a slate of movies and shows.

The Big Picture: Generative AI has become a flashpoint in Hollywood, mostly rejected by the professional creative community and cautiously embraced by studios. By diving headfirst into making projects with AI, Promise may not be disrupting Hollywood as much as developing an adjacent industry.

Behind the Prompts: Promise is riding the wave of AI investor interest to generate a new creator class.

• Promise plans to produce films, shows, and “new formats” with upcoming gen-AI artists and Hollywood talent (if they dare to dip their toes) using a proprietary system called “MUSE.”
• It was founded by George Strompolos (founder of the creator network Fullscreen), Jamie Byrne (a YouTube exec who helped create the platform’s revenue-sharing program), and Dave Clark (an AI filmmaker and commercial director).
• It’s already raised a seed round from Peter Chernin’s North Road Co. and a16z’s Andrew Chen, but there’s no information on the financials yet.
• The studio has about ten employees and plans to fluctuate headcount depending upon production needs.

Final Render: Strompolos said this is a “transformational moment in entertainment,” and he couldn’t be more right when it comes to the potential of generative AI. The consumer side of the tech could be undone by copyright infringement, while studios simultaneously embrace it as a way to optimize operations and post-production workflows. Building a studio around the tech puts a foot in each pool. There’s likely a lot of legal wrangling to overcome… but if audiences embrace it, generative AI could evolve into a format alongside live action and animation.