Luma AI CEO: Hollywood is dying, only AI can save it

Are you tired of Hollywood churning out movie after movie from the same three franchises year after year? So is Amit Jain, the founder and CEO of Luma AI. 

Luma has been working with a number of creatives eager to try out its AI video generator, and even opened up an AI lab in Los Angeles this summer to help filmmakers incorporate AI into their craft. But when I talked to Jain about the company’s new Ray 3 video model this week, he had some harsh words about the current state of the movie business.

“Hollywood is already dead if it continues on its current path,” Jain told me. “This has nothing to do with AI. The way it is consolidating, and keeps telling the same stories over and over again.” 

Hollywood has become too risk-averse, and stopped trying new things, he said. “If all you can do is make 100-million, 200-million-dollar movies, then you are never going to touch novelty. Why are you making 5 [to] 10 Blockbusters a year instead of, like, you know, trying 50 to 100 ideas?”

“This current decline in the visual arts, and Hollywood production, […] has to stop,” Jain said. “It stops by people trying out new ideas, and AI is the only way.” By giving filmmakers the tools to try out new ideas faster, and for a lot less money, generative AI can help them get back to their roots, and take risks. “AI enables Hollywood to touch novelty again,” he said. 

Jain made these remarks a few days before Luma officially unveiled Ray 3, its newest video model. He told me Ray 3 is the first generative video model with reasoning. “Ray 3 is able to evaluate itself, and make sure it’s exactly what you're asking for,” Jain said. 

Among other things, this enables Ray 3 to respond to visual annotations: Creatives can draw arrows on a still image to direct motion, and the model then makes a person, animal or object move in the direction of the arrow.