Actor Natasha Lyonne may not come from the tech world, but her production company is emerging as a trailblazer in bringing AI content to the big screen—and she has thoughts about the tech’s increasing influence.
Lyonne, who is most well-known for an on-screen roles in Netflix’s “Russian Doll” and “Orange is the New Black,” is also a writer, director, and the cofounder of Asteria Film Co., an artist-led animation and film studio that aims to provide high-quality and copyright friendly generative AI for marquee content.
Other AI video-generation models like OpenAI’s Sora 2 and Google’s Veo 3 have run into controversy for scraping the web and sometimes clashing with copyright rules. Asteria, which Lyonne co-founded in 2022, is taking a different approach.
Asteria partnered with Moonvalley AI, which makes AI tools for filmmakers, to create Marey, named after cinematographer Étienne-Jules Marey. The tool helps generate AI video that can be used for movies and TV, but only draws on open-license content or material it has explicit permission to use.
Being careful about the inputs for Asteria’s AI video generation is important, Lyonne said at the Fortune Brainstorm AI conference in San Francisco last week. As AI use increases, both tech and Hollywood need to respect the work of the cast, as well as the crew and the writers behind the scenes.
