‘Titanic’ director James Cameron joins board of Stability AI By Reuters

(Reuters) -Stability AI said on Tuesday that “Titanic” and “Terminator” director James Cameron has joined the artificial intelligence startup’s board of directors.

The explosive growth of generative AI has caught Hollywood’s attention at a time when production costs have soared.

After OpenAI’s text-to-video tool, Sora, made waves in February with its high-quality videos, Hollywood executives and agents met with the company to discuss possible uses for the technology, they said industry specialists.

Cameron’s appointment brings Stability AI closer to its goal of “transforming visual media” by providing creators with a full portfolio of AI tools, CEO Prem Akkaraju said.

London-based Stability AI, which raised about $80 million in funding earlier this year, makes an artificial intelligence imaging tool that rivals those made by Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:) OpenAI and backed by Microsoft.

The firm raised $101 million in a seed round led by Coatue Management and Lightspeed Venture Partners at a $1 billion valuation in 2022.

Stability AI also offers Stable Video Diffusion, a tool for generating text in video.

Cameron said the intersection of GenAI and computer-generated imagery will “unlock new ways for artists to tell stories in ways we could never have imagined.”

Hollywood’s relationship with artificial intelligence has not been smooth, however.

A major reason writers and actors went on strike in 2023 was to seek protection for their images and craft from the unregulated use of artificial intelligence, with limits on how studios can use the technology when making movies and TV shows.

Cameron joined other recently appointed Stability AI board members, including former Facebook (NASDAQ: ) chairman Sean Parker, who serves as the company’s executive chairman.