Video game actors settle strike with landmark deal on AI, Luma AI Launches Dream Lab LA Studio to Pioneer AI-Driven Storytelling in Hollywood
AI video startup Moonvalley raises $84M
Moonvalley AI, a startup developing generative video models trained entirely on licensed content, has raised an additional $84 million in funding, bringing its total haul to $154 million. The round, led by General Catalyst and joined by Creative Artists Agency, CoreWeave, Comcast Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Y Combinator, points to a growing appetite for AI tools with a cleaner copyright slate. The company’s flagship, Marey, is billed as production-worthy AI built on ethically sourced material — a direct counter to the minefield of copyright concerns dogging many rivals. Moonvalley works hand in glove with its in-house film studio Asteria, headed by Oscar-winner Bryn Mooser, in an attempt to ensure the technology addresses filmmakers’ everyday needs rather than disrupts them. Co-founder Samrat Talukdar claims Marey was designed not to replace creatives but to collaborate with them, aiming to allay industry fears about AI’s impact on jobs. He says the model’s asset library, assembled solely from licensed content, ensures output is commercially safe and “ethical” by design — a line likely to be scrutinised by Hollywood as the debate over AI’s role in content creation intensifies.
Luma AI Launches Dream Lab LA Studio to Pioneer AI-Driven Storytelling in Hollywood
Silicon Valley startup Luma AI, backed by Nvidia and Andreessen Horowitz, is expanding into Hollywood with the launch of Dream Lab LA, a new studio focused on AI-driven storytelling. Described as a “creative engine room,” the lab will be led by Verena Puhm, a longtime creative working with CNN, Netflix, and the BBC, whose projects have featured at Sundance and OpenAI’s Sora Selects. Jon Finger, known for his work in motion capture and virtual production with Paramount Network and Comedy Central, joins as creative workflow executive. Founded in 2021, Luma’s platform Dream Machine generates photorealistic video and images from text prompts and is already being used by 30 million creators, including teams at Adobe and AWS. The company says the LA studio will work with filmmakers, brands, and designers to develop next-gen production tools that fuse generative AI with traditional creative workflows.
Video game actors settle strike with landmark deal on AI
Hollywood’s video game voice and motion-capture actors have ended their 11-month strike after ratifying a new contract with major studios, including Activision, Insomniac, and EA. Approved by 95% of voting SAG-AFTRA members and effective immediately, the Interactive Media Agreement includes significant wage increases, overtime pay, and new health and safety standards. These include mandatory medical staff for hazardous scenes, required rest breaks, and a ban on demanding risky stunts during auditions. Crucially, the deal introduces some of the strongest AI protections in the industry to date. Performers must give informed consent for the use of digital replicas of their voice and likeness, with clear disclosure and the ability to suspend permission during labor disputes. The agreement also ensures compensation for the use of AI-generated content based on their performances, such as chatbots or future projects, marking a major shift in how synthetic media is handled in the gaming world.
Wetransfer denies using files to train AI after backlash
File-sharing platform WeTransfer has clarified that it does not use customer files to train artificial intelligence models, after a wave of criticism over recent changes to its terms of service. Users on social media raised concerns that the new language implied the company could use uploaded content for AI training. In response, WeTransfer updated the terms to make them “easier to understand,” stating that the company does not use AI or machine learning to process shared files, nor does it sell data to third parties. The now-revised clause had included wording about improving machine learning models for content moderation, as well as granting the right to reproduce, distribute, or publicly display uploaded files. WeTransfer said the clause was originally intended to allow for potential AI use in identifying harmful content, but acknowledged it was confusing. The updated terms, which take effect on 8 August, clarify that any use of content will strictly adhere to the company’s privacy policy. Similarly, Dropbox also faced criticism and had to affirm that it does not use files uploaded to its platform to train AI models.
Ginger Liu is the founder of Hollywood’s Ginger Media & Entertainment, a researcher in artificial intelligence and visual arts media, and an entrepreneur, author, writer, artist, photographer, and filmmaker. Listen to the Podcast — The Digital Afterlife of Grief.
