Over the past four years, Tyler Perry had been planning an $800 million expansion of his studio in Atlanta, which would have added 12 soundstages to the 330-acre property. Now, however, those ambitions are on hold – thanks to the rapid developments he’s seeing in the realm of artificial intelligence, including OpenAI’s text-to-video model Sora, which debuted last month and stunned observers with its cinematic video outputs.
“Being told that it can do all of these things is one thing, but actually seeing the capabilities, it was mind-blowing,” he said in an interview, noting that his productions might not have to travel to locations or build sets with the assistance of the technology.
As a business owner, Perry sees the opportunity in these developments, but as an employer, actor and filmmaker, he also wants to raise the alarm. Explaining his concerns about the technology’s impact on labor and why he wants the industry to come together to tackle AI, Perry shared, “There’s got to be some sort of regulations in order to protect us. If not, I just don’t see how we survive.”