{"id":555883,"date":"2026-06-26T21:01:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/555883\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T21:01:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:01:20","slug":"a24-will-survive-the-ai-backlash-but-some-believe-it-sold-its-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/555883\/","title":{"rendered":"A24 Will Survive the AI Backlash, But Some Believe it ‘Sold Its Soul’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A24<\/a> got its first taste of artificial intelligence backlash in 2024 when it released AI-generated posters for \u201cCivil War,\u201d <\/a>then its most expensive release to date. Why did a movie about photojournalism use artificially generated images to promote it? Didn\u2019t this film<\/a> have a big enough budget that it didn\u2019t have to use AI<\/a> for the marketing? Did they learn nothing from director Alex Garland\u2019s first film \u201cEx Machina\u201d? Others just hated what they saw on principle.<\/p>\n

Though that backlash came shortly after the animosity directed at AI during the 2023 writers and actors strikes, the powers that be at A24 surely must have known this could be a possibility again.<\/p>\n

\"THE<\/a> \"'Cielo'\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

On Monday, A24 and Google<\/a> DeepMind announced a partnership that includes a $75 million investment from Google intended as part of research into developing AI workflows for filming. IndieWire tried to put some context into what this deal actually was<\/a>, reporting that this was strictly a research partnership, not a production deal, that it included no mandates on producing films or other specific AI projects, and that models wouldn\u2019t be trained on A24 IP. <\/p>\n

But, as we later pointed out in a separate piece, access to A24\u2019s internal process is essentially the whole ballgame<\/a>. A24\u2019s tightly guarded culture is often viewed as what has led to the company\u2019s success and its cultural cachet. Inviting Google\u2019s AI tech bros into that hallowed ground that helped make Barry Jenkins, Ari Aster, Greta Gerwig, Jane Schoenbrun, and now Kane Parsons into household names just doesn\u2019t sit right with anyone who has spent $40 on an A24 candle.<\/p>\n

\u201cFucking losers. Time for film bros to stop glazing this mid production company,\u201d one comment read on a recent tweet promoting A24\u2019s trailer for \u201cThe Debut,\u201d Jesse Eisenberg\u2019s film that has absolutely nothing to do with AI and certainly doesn\u2019t deserve to be catching such strays. \u201cYou\u2019re a joke and a disgrace to filmmaking. Good luck filling those seats,\u201d another read.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard to find disgruntled comments on IndieWire\u2019s articles whenever we write about AI, but even we were shocked at some of the animosity we saw toward the news. <\/p>\n

\u201cDress it up however you want it, A24 just sold its soul.\u201d \u201cNEON was the realest all along.\u201d \u201cSo disappointing. AI can and will never make art. The sooner this bubble pops the better.\u201d \u201cNO A24! You were the chosen one!\u201d \u201cByeeee A24, got no time or energy to make excuses for a wannabe tech company masquerading as a production company.\u201d \u201cI hope ya\u2019ll know that these hate comments aren\u2019t just a PR blip and won\u2019t just eventually blow over. We genuinely hate AI. This is a bad move.\u201d <\/p>\n

Actress and filmmakerJustine Bateman, who was among the most vocal critics online of AI during the WGA strike in 2023, has also been on a tear in the wake of the Google DeepMind announcement.<\/p>\n

\n

It’s quite disappointing that a company that just enjoyed the triumphant box office returns of staunchly anti-AI Kane Parsons’ BACKROOMS would make such a deal. <\/p>\n

All A24 directors should prepare to have your films altered against your wishes with this deal. Google is the company\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/bJ2CRPzq9c<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) June 22, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bateman\u2019s accusation about having films \u201caltered against your wishes\u201d is a baseless assumption, but it underscores the deep mistrust people have when they hear about the sheer involvement of AI in art in any form.<\/p>\n

A24 gave a statement to Wired<\/a> earlier this week reiterating that its partnership with Google DeepMind is for research and that it would never take its relationships with filmmakers for granted. A24 sees this as a means to give creators access to the next wave of tools, just as it has always done, not about mandating what they make or altering their work: <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a research partnership. We\u2019re working side-by-side with DeepMind\u2019s researchers to learn, iterate, and build, having an active hand in shaping new tools and workflows. Our relationship with our audience is something we don\u2019t take for granted. This partnership exists because we want to dictate what tools get built for artists, and so they have a voice in shaping them rather than having tools handed to them. We\u2019d rather have a seat at the table than on the sidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rebuttal will be that any form of AI could or should be seen as theft and is a slippery slope toward taking away people\u2019s jobs. Others pointed to the recent comments of Parsons on AI, that the \u201cBackrooms\u201d director referred to AI as \u201ccreative rot\u201d and that he\u2019s inherently less interested in something generated by it.<\/p>\n

\"SANTADirector Kane Parsons attends the Los Angeles Special Screening of A24\u2019s \u2018Backrooms\u2019 at the Aero Theatre on May 07, 2026 in Santa Monica, CaliforniaAmanda Edwards\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t help that this A24 drama comes in the wake of Amazon MGM dropping the rights to \u201cArtificial,\u201d Luca Guadagnino\u2019s nearly-completed new film<\/a> that is a \u201cSocial Network\u201d style story about OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman, one that A24 has now passed on distributing itself. It has raised bigger questions about the involvement of tech in any Hollywood studio, and it looked for a while like A24 was above Disney cozying up with OpenAI<\/a> or Lionsgate training Runway models with their IP<\/a>. <\/p>\n

History would suggest A24 can easily weather this controversy. It just had the biggest box office hit in its history with \u201cBackrooms,\u201d and it has a slate on the horizon that includes the Chris Hansen and \u201cTo Catch a Predator\u201d movie \u201cPrimetime\u201d starring Robert Pattinson, an \u201cElden Ring\u201d movie from Garland, an Anthony Bourdain biopic, and opening today, Olivia Wilde\u2019s Sundance sensation \u201cThe Invite.\u201d<\/p>\n

But just ask MUBI about how controversies over funding and investments can fester<\/a> over an extended period of time and forever change the perception of a company among some of its most loyal followers. A24 won\u2019t have trouble acquiring or developing films with interesting filmmakers over this, but they suddenly feel a lot less cool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A24 got its first taste of artificial intelligence backlash in 2024 when it released AI-generated posters for \u201cCivil…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[261],"tags":[745,291,289,290,18,597,823,19,17,82],"class_list":["post-555883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-a24","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-eire","tag-film","tag-google","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116818431020312051","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}