Our Thoughts on A24's Google AI Partnership: Innovation or Contradiction?

“Really, A24? Right in front of our podcast?” This week, Darren, Kailyn, Amanda, and Nick have gathered for a special episode to discuss the $75 million AI partnership deal A24 and Google have signed. This deal will involve A24 incorporating Google’s AI tools into its future projects - much to the chagrin of the A24 fanbase. Commiserate with us and help us decide whether this decision will ultimately help or hurt the A24 brand going forward.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Hey everyone, and welcome to another episode of A24 Carrot Gold. I'm your co-host Nick Bamback. We got Amanda, Darren, and Caitlin here, a full crew. So we're gonna have a special episode today. It's our first special episode since the beginning of the show. There's been a lot of things in the news lately about A24. And you know what? We said to ourselves, let's do a special episode, an emergency episode. We just broke that case and ta-da, we're all here. So I'm gonna let Kaylin actually take over this episode. She's gonna introduce this topic to our audience. So take it away, Kaylin.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

All right. So basically, I am the chosen one because this mostly affects me, I want to say. I've been writing my own content as a content writer since 2012, and I basically kind of one of the reasons I left my last job was because of how they so openly embraced AI. And so, yeah, when I heard about this partnership, I was not very happy about it. And I've been reading a whole bunch on the reasons for it and the criticisms against it and the arguments in support of it. And I think that there are definitely good arguments to be made on either side, even though ultimately I still do not agree with this decision. So I've grabbed some good quotes that I want to discuss, and basically we have a few articles that we've been going over just to get some good background, because we don't want to be entirely one side or the other on this. We want to give it a fair shake and try and understand what we're doing with this. Because, like, let's face it, even if we hate AI, it's being shoved down our throats. It's pretty much everywhere. It's getting filtered in through our jobs, our films, our books, everything. Everything is going through AI. So it's either like kind of what's the phrase, like get on the boat or get left behind or whatever. Like you kind of have to embrace it or get left in the dust, which really sucks. Because I don't want to. And especially with somebody like A24 that we have been appreciating, especially here on the show, but generally as an A24 fan base in general, about their, you know, embracing of creativity and new things and human things and human stories. And then hearing about this partnership about a very non-human thing was just very disappointing. And the the online backlash, to say the least, has been absolutely devastating. And, you know, I feel people's pain. So I wanted to get on this and discuss it because I feel like if we just continue the show without addressing it, it shows that we are all in support of it, really, if we just kind of ignore the massive artificially created elephant in the room. So I figure we should just probably do an episode to talk about it, at least air our grievances or our support, and then at least we have basically, you know, said how we feel about it, and we can then move on. So that is why I have gathered you all here today to celebrate this wonderful thing called life and to crap all over this wonderful thing called AI.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

So I think something that we should know too, so we're recording this episode on June 27th, and the news broke about this on June 22nd. So that's five days after the ale was announced. So it's really interesting because we've recorded our sharper episode a couple weeks before that, and we always release episodes historically on the 24th. So it was a really weird thing for our podcast because we were thinking, huh, we we can't go back and edit the episode really to like insert anything without it sounding unnatural, but we also kind of have to address it. So I think just say that we're recorded like the week of that this news broke out, just in case people are listening in the future or the week of or whatever it may be. This news broke out on the 22nd, and there's just been a lot of different things that have been in the news. And I think the thing that I find really interesting about this is we haven't done this movie on the podcast because the wheel has not uh picked it yet, is Backrooms with uh Kane Parsons, and he's been such a vocal critic against AI. I mean, he's literally on the record for saying that it's the bane of his existence. Like I I have to pull up the exact quote that he has. Oh, I I have the exact quote, yeah. Oh, you take it away, Amanda.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

Yeah, he says he said he told um he told the Australian that if I could snap my fingers and make generative AI disappear forever, I probably would. Creatively, I get no enjoyment from using those tools. It defeats the purpose entirely for me. But he also said he sees the potential for AI assistance in more tedious VFX tasks. He says right now it's difficult to discuss objectively because there's so much at stake and so many genuinely harmful consequences already happening. He says, I'm interested in using that iconography and art, not using AI to make the art itself, but examining what it represents. I definitely want to explore it further in future projects. So there's an element in which he's talking about maybe using AI in uh possibly, you know, more kind of tedious VFX things when it comes to filmmaking, but obviously doesn't want it within the core of what they're doing. So it's just really interesting that this partnership is announced and came out after this director comes out and and says this beforehand, and then also Backrooms has made a 24 what over 200 million dollars now worldwide, something like that.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

300 million million. Yeah, it's their biggest film by far now.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Oh yeah, or pretty much doubling up Marty Supreme at this point.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

Yeah, yeah, which is which is crazy. And I this is being framed as a research partnership. So the idea that Google doesn't get access to any of A24's films or data or anything like that. But also, I I think it was an article in IndieWire that says you don't get moonlight, but you get to sit in the room where moonlight is like made or edited and things like that. So it's a wonder in terms of how much is this going to actually be involved in the filmmaking processes of these directors that choose to be part of A24 and the editors and creatives and everything else kind of moving forward. And what I think I understand that there is a lot of trepidation about this. There's trepidation on all of our sides right now about this. I I think I can say. But also we don't really know what it is yet. I think we're too I think it's too early to press the panic eject button right now on A24 if you've if you've been on the ride for this long.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

I think when people think about creative types think about AI, they immediately jump to this is gonna do the writing for us, this is gonna do the acting for us, this is gonna do the animating for us, this is going to do all of the work that the creative people do and is going to be replaced with something that doesn't understand human nature, doesn't have human experiences, and is going to create the kind of basically the uh the film equivalent of those um uncanny CGI um images. I definitely don't want AI doing any of those things. I don't want fake stories. If I'm watching a movie, I wanted to know that it's written by a human being. If I'm seeing an actor, I want to know that it's a human being who's putting in a performance. Even if it's animated, I want to know that the vocals are coming from a human being. That being said, there are some things that AI could be used that could make things more efficient just by analyzing data, analyzing information in the process and then finding better ways to do things that don't necessarily cost people their jobs, but make more opportunities available by making some processes cheaper. So it really all comes down to what are you going to do with the AI? What authorizations does it have? What access does it have? And what is it going to take over? So while AI is very scary to anybody, especially like, you know, someone who's a creative type or someone like me who does work in uh computer programming as a coder, so AI is definitely a threat to a lot of people, especially people who are coming up and wanting to enter into these industries and are being replaced by um artificial intelligence that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. So it's all really a matter of what is it and where is it going? Is this going to be the next thing that revolutionizes the film industry? Is this going to be like what happened to the silent movies when they had the talkies? Is this going to be what happened when you know computer-generated animation replaces hand-drawn animation? Is this going to be the next um planet-killing comet that wipes out a significant chunk of uh the film industry? Or is it going to be something that is integrated in as a part of a film industry? And that is a question for the future.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

I was actually curious if any other studio had done a similar deal to what uh the Google AI and A24 is doing right now. And it's for $75 million. I don't know if we said that. That's a lot of money on the table for A24. One of the ones I found, and it kind of correlates because they're more of an indie studio, is Lionsgate. Lionsgate has a partnership with Runway, and Runway is using models to help accelerate like concept art and storytelling, VFX and uh marketing. And it's really interesting because I they've actually, right before this news, they actually further expanded it. So like there's probably more things that they're gonna be doing at Lionsgate and Runway, but it's really uh interesting that uh a studio like the A24 one, of course, we do on the show, is uh kind of doing the same thing. And then it makes you kind of wonder are these really independent studios anymore? Like, has A24 kind of become mainstream? So when I was thinking about this, I'm thinking like, can A24 remain A24 in a world where they're using these very corporate tools and softwares to you know make their movies or to help exhilarate their things? Um, but the Lionsgate one is a really interesting comparison.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

Yeah, I mean, I was thinking the exact same thing about the mainstream thing because, like, basically uh was said in the Wired article that I was reading that A24 was always positioned as being hip and cutting edge. And right now, embracing AI is as un-hip and cutting edge as you can be. It's basically just kind of joining the bandwagon. So I think that's why for a good part of it, that's a good reason why a lot of people are upset, I think, is because it's just breaking away entirely from the we are different, we are edgy, we're gonna give creatives a chance. And like, yes, you can be probably creative with AI, but I think nobody wants to embrace that right now. And everybody's worried about it just becoming slop. And we've just come to appreciate so many unique and different and high-quality things from A24 that can just be totally turned into AI slop. And like one of the things I was reading that A24's Sophia Shin had told wire was she said, quote, truth is we don't necessarily love any of the current AI outputs on screen in Hollywood. I don't even know if ultimately we'd create tech on that front. This partnership is about learning and helping pain points and workflows behind the scenes more than anything else, end quote. Which, yes, I absolutely understand that from a business perspective, but my argument is, but then how do you ever watch an A24 film from say, you know, not obviously July on, because there's already still stuff in the work, but say like next year, you go into a theater and you watch an A24 film, and if they tried to sneak in one scene that they just like buffered up a little bit with AI and you catch it, you'll never trust A24 again. It's like you said this was gonna be used for like workflow and you know, not the output. And if you catch it and using it in the output, that's basically, I think, the final like nail in the coffin for the studio, I would think. Because as a cynic holding out for, you know, no, it's just gonna be their workflow. It's not gonna affect the art at all. And if they just use it once on the art, that's gonna be it. That's gonna be the end of it. So I don't know. I really do, I think, I mean, uh the business I work in now, we use AI, as much as I'm not a fan of it. And it does cut down on some things, but it also sacrifices others, and I'm not a huge fan of it. So I think there is some sacrifice involved when you're not putting in the blood, sweat, and tears that a human being can do. But also, too, I think about it, like, you know, suppose back in the day, if we all had social media when they were making Avatar and that was the big CGI movie, you know, James Cameron put in so much money to put in, make this massive multi-million dollar movie, and it's beautiful with the computer graphics and everything. Like, if you had all the people that were on social media back then who were hand-drawing, you know, Lion King and stuff, like what do we have the same arguments because it's being made faster and easier and not necessarily cheaper, but kind of seen as a shortcut. But there's a lot of things that you can do with CGI that you can't do with animation. So it's it's everything. Everything has a good side and a bad side. I tend to lean more cynically towards the bad side because I think it's just we're protective of A24. We're used to it being innovative and different and creative, and AI is the very antithesis of that. So that's why I saw that like news story the other day, and my heart plummeted, like, no, not you two, A24.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

I think we don't know enough about the deal per se yet. So I feel like, in many ways, not that this was a reactionary episode, it kind of is, but I feel like something that made me think about this more. None of the articles I don't think that we looked at in our very uh quick lit review, as a librarian would say, is uh how this affects the Hollywood labor concerns. Like in the last couple years, like they had the the writer strike and the actors' strikes, and AI was one of the central issues. So you had that fake actress that uh was terrible, the Tilly Norwood.

SPEAKER_03 13:33

Tilly Norwood. Yeah, the New York Times did a really interesting piece on the creator of that, which people should people should check out. It was it's it's crazy kind of what where that came from and what they're trying to do with it and and everything like that. Um but I think we also have to take into account though that A24 was already doing things with technology and innovation. They had a whole technology and innovation arm that existed even before called A24 Labs, which existed even before this whole project partnership was was announced, which was run by um Scott Belski, who is from Adobe and was working in that area as well. So they were already doing things uh less visibly in this area. And who knows, you know, uh what actually technology and innovation means. Those are very vague terms in terms of what they're actually doing already in in that respect. So I think this is just for this particular company the first really, really visible thing that they've done in this realm, which is why I think it's getting the most kind of criticism that that other arm of the company didn't get as much, as far as I've seen before this announcement.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

AI is such a hot button topic right now, and especially for art, that just somebody so artsy, like A24 saying we're gonna use AI now is just basically kind of like setting a fire under all the, you know, the edgy film bros. Like you're just basically starting an argument with people by announcing, like, hey, this thing that you all think is gonna kill art, well, we're getting all in on it. $75 million worth of people are obviously not going to have a great response to that.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

I think also it's this idea that what made A24 popular, we kind of touched on this in our first two episodes. If you guys want to check it out in the archives, is that they built it around like autour directors, right? These independent maverick filmmakers that were doing bold and original works that you would never see at a major studio. Or if you did, they would probably try to toss it to the side. And I think the idea too is that they always valued the visions of the creatives, and I'm thinking like the filmmakers and the writers, and really the human creativity over that blockbuster formula that you see in many franchises. So to me, I think that's where I think a lot of people have kind of clashed with this or critiqued it because they feel like it's almost like a betrayal of the thing that they've been supporting for so long. Because I mean, when you look at it, you're thinking, this seems like something that A24 would never do if you followed it for as long as we all have. It was, it just seems like kind of a wait, what what? And then if they're doing it, and I'm just gonna throw some studios out there that are similar, like Mubi and Neon, and well, Lionsgate's already doing it, but there's a lot of these indie art house specialty studios like that that are they next to then follow suit because A24, I mean, they have plenty of Oscars on their shelf, so it's not like they're just a startup company.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

And then plus, too, mentioning Neon, they're one of the two. I think Neon and Movie are the two that are considering the Sam Alton biopic, and the A24 wasn't, which is kind of an interesting take.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Oh, you read my mind because I think that this is a hugely important issue to keep in mind. So for contest, Luca Guanito uh made queer for A24, but he's also made a lot of films for like MGM and uh Amazon. So he did Bones and All, he did Challengers, and there might be one or two others, but the point is that they made this movie about Sam Altman called Arofficial that's almost near the end of production. So it's not like they just started to make this movie, like it's literally in post-production, and then it was announced in the last week or so that Amazon is gonna shop it around just to see if anyone else would want to buy it. And they really didn't give a reason, really. And then there was all these like talks of like, well, who else could get this uh project? And one of the names that came up was A24, and they passed on it, and then Netflix passed on it, and um there was a couple others, like the like Warner Brothers, uh, but one of them that could get it, and I think they should, and we mentioned them, is Movie. Mubi is like the one that I think is gonna probably get it because they need a hit after the substance, like they haven't really had a big one, and this movie would the cast that they have and the people that are involved, that will get more people on that product. And they have a whole set of issues that we won't even get into on this podcast. They've had controversies too.

SPEAKER_03 18:09

Yeah, but and there's also, I mean, the thing about the Sam Altman artificial movie with it with the Amazon also, Amazon has a partnership in some capacity with OpenAI. So that also begs the question of was this film is this film now being shopped around or was it was it dropped from this from this deal because of that partnership, you know, or because they saw the final pro were close to the final product and they and they thought, well, so so so that's where we come to to the issue that circles, you know, back to everything we've been talking about with A24 is since this partnership is so new and we know nothing about it, really will it at some point not only influence the things we see on screen, but but also what movies are made and and what topics they cover and things like that. So that's where you get into the get it. That's where I I see the panic coming, but also like I said, this is so new. And I agree with Caitlin. I don't think that AI has a place in making stories and and making animations and in doing the core things that humans have worked their entire lives to do. But I also see, you know, where it could be used in maybe like tiny VXF things that aren't super obvious, maybe, and and kind of there may be other ways to use it, but I don't want it kind of in the core of my films. But also, you know, unfortunately, this is the way corporations are gonna go. And we should be critical of them and we should make sure that we're voicing our criticisms because maybe that'll change something. But at the same time, I'm not sitting in the boardroom making these decisions.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

And I mean, plus two, going back to my other argument before about the whole like CGI thing, like there are plenty of films that have benefited from just putting a little bit in there, and then we've seen the films that are made with mostly CGI in the same thing's gonna happen here. Like it's it would be stupid to think that they're only gonna use it to change.

SPEAKER_03 20:03

And we're not saying it's right, like that that it that that's used in in like more obvious ways. You know, I don't really know what's right for it to be used at this point. I just know I don't I don't want people having stories made with it, like in terms of it coming up with the whole story concept or writing scripts or creating animation or doing things like that. But I also don't know, like I said, what this partnership is actually going to be, what it's gonna turn into, how it's gonna be used. The whole argument with A24 that they've made to combat the criticism is that we'd rather be in the room kind of where it happens, like helping our creatives, you know, navigate this as opposed to outside of it. So I don't know. Is there an argument to be made that that's a positive thing? I'm not we don't know. And I think that that's the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

It's hard to say whether it's gonna be a positive or a negative. Um it's like it all really depends on how it's gonna be used, which is the truth of all AI. You know, what purpose is it gonna serve? Is it gonna be profitable? Are they eventually going to make AI so that it isn't so destructive to uh the environment and to jobs and actually improve things maybe someday, or maybe the bubble bursts and uh AI just goes the way of uh previous technology that was hyped up and didn't uh pan out. It it really depends on how things shake out and uh it's kind of tentative right now. We don't really know what direction it's gonna head in or where it's gonna end up.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

I think it's very interesting that like the Disney Sora thing fell through and then this big thing just happened. I figured that the Disney Sora thing was gonna set a precedent going forward for not using maybe that would be the bubble burst thing, but that didn't really seem to matter.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Well, I mean that's the thing with AI businesses, is that they are hemorrhaging cash right now. And it is very much a race to get to the technology that people are actually going to be willing to spend money on, because otherwise, eventually these businesses are gonna go under and probably take a significant take a significant chunk of the economy with them. So it's a matter of whether or not these investments. Investments are going to pay off and whether or not AI is going to become something useful or if it's going to end up crashing and burning. It's kind of a bubble right now. We don't know. It is a huge bubble. And usually these bubbles burst. But when the dot com bubble burst, we still had websites. We still had the internet. There were survivors. So we'll have to see how it pans out. Because right now it seems like it's an overhyped bubble that's going to cause it's probably going to cause the next economic downturn. But that doesn't mean it'll just go away. I mean, the people who figure out how to make money off of it are the ones that will survive. Yep. Whatever that means.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

I think what's kind of interesting is that when we're thinking about this, uh, even in the creation of uh movies or art or whatever, should there something ask you guys is if they do do this, should it be in the closing credits somewhere that they consulted AI or something to that extent? Because to me, if they do use these tools, and I'm not just saying A24, but any of the studios or filmmakers, they should explicitly put that in at least the credits or acknowledgments or something. So you don't feel duped as a movie watcher.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

I've seen a lot of movies at the end of the credits where it says that AI was not used to make this film and that you don't have the authorization to use it. So basically, putting that in there to say that you didn't is the way to make guarantee that the people who don't put that disclaimer in there they have to explain themselves.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Yeah, and I mean, interestingly enough, the people who made heretic, Scott Beck and Brian Woods, included a disclaimer in the A24 distributed film that said that there was no generative AI used in it.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Well, exactly, because there was some confusing things that look like they might be ger generative AI in that movie.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

And uh that's the thing I was talking about before. Like if you have a scene that even looks like it could have been just shodily made AI, people are gonna be like, see, see, that's exactly what we were worried about. And that's and even if it isn't AI, like you're gonna Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

No, no, that's just what Alexander Scar's cart looks like, damn it. We didn't create him in a lab, he's real.

SPEAKER_03 24:03

Well, yeah, and then you get into the whole con D wasn't it uh guys, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it the Brutalist were they some type of brutalist AI in some combination?

SPEAKER_01 24:14

So the brutalist used some AI in order to help Adrian Brody perfect his accent. Oh, right, yes.

SPEAKER_03 24:21

Did they did they have a disclaimer somewhere in the credits? I can't remember.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

No, no, because I think it actually came out as part of the Oscar race because people were like, oh, that's interesting, because they didn't know that when it was picked.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

So that's part of the Oscar race. They were trying to slander it so that their preferred candidate could win.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

That's how that works.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

Oscar Munsling.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

I think it's yeah, I think it was also uh uh Felicity Jones, who was also with her accent in the film, too. Because the thing is he won an Oscar Brody and she was nominated for an Oscar. It it's a very murky topic, just because I feel like we don't really know exactly where they're going with this. And it it it's really it's it's a little discomforting that they're doing this, but then at the same but then at the same time, I'm just gonna throw stuff out there for listeners and for our co-hosts. Movie theaters, especially independent ones, like not the AMCs, the multiplexes, regals, they're all struggling and they gotta do everything they can to survive. And I'm not sitting here saying that this is the answer. I don't want to suggest that. But at the same time, what are these studios going to do when it's just part of the everyday practices? And you know what I'm trying to say, right? It's almost like it's do you embrace it or do you just close shop? And I don't know what the right answer is.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

Yeah, it's kill or decal. That's the question. But the entertainment industry often leads when it comes to technology and society social uh norms. If you start to see AI everything in normal television and normal movies, AI is going to become more normalized.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

Yep. Which is exactly what that's another reason I think people are hating on this so much and on because they're scared, that's for sure. Yeah, because they're just making it normal. And and I think part of it too is just the fact that we don't really have a say in this. It's just like this is what's happening, and that's it. Everything is just being constantly automated, and it's just affecting everything from your job to your art, and it's just it's everything everywhere all at once.

SPEAKER_03 26:18

Your email and everything.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

So it's just such an interesting development, and I think that the criticism I think is valid. I'm gonna be honest though, I think it's a little bit of a reaction because we just don't know enough. Like they're not getting access to their data or to the film library, so it's not the ex pre-existing works of the ones we're doing on this podcast. But at the same time, I think we should keep an eye on it, I guess, is what I is the best advice I could give, really. And I work in education and it changes every day, so it does. So it's really hard to know because something that happened a week ago could be outdated two days later, especially with AI tools and technology.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

A month from now, the portion of Google that they partnered with might be out of business. Who knows?

SPEAKER_02 27:05

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 27:06

Yeah, it it and also I mean, in the context of what, 75 million dollars. That's not a lot for Google. You know, it it it's a lot for it's a lot for A24, it's not a lot for Google, and I'm sure Google has its hands and a lot of other places that we know about and we don't, kind of thing. So I I yeah, as Nick was saying, I think I think we should be critical of this. I think we should definitely keep an eye on it. I think we should be cautious about it, and I think we'll just have to wait and see. And hopefully, as we were talking about, there's transparency in terms of if a tool that's developed from this partnership is used in the filmmaking process, if one of the filmmakers, you know, or editors or whatever creatives are involved in future films. Hopefully, if it is, if it's not being transparent in the credits, hopefully that person on interviews is saying, Well, we used this thing, or we did s we did slight tweaks with this, and it made the film better, it made the film look in a certain way, or something like that. So hopefully if the company itself isn't being very transparent, hopefully the people that work with it are, and and that's and so we don't have controversies like with the brutalist or other films where it's maybe been used and they tried to push it under the rug.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

So yeah, I mean that's one thing I want to end on before we go with um there was a film critic, Esther Rosenfield, that she was talking about, and this I thought was incredibly interesting for a different perspective. She was calling it a form of positive PR for Google, because she was basically saying, quote, we want they are saying we want to launder our reputation through you. We want to make it look like serious artists are going to be making things with these tools because serious artists, by and large, aren't, end quote. So it's like, wow, like, are you literally saying that like A24 is bigger than Google? And by Google partnering with A24, it's giving Google a lift.

SPEAKER_03 28:53

Like, that's that's it has more goodwill for sure.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

A24 has a better reputation, it's more credible. Yeah, that's what laundering.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

People like A24 or liked, I guess, in terms of this deal.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

I thought it was interesting though, they were like, oh, but A24 offered no comment on this.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

So something to end on, I think that I want us to pay attention to is uh we haven't really heard from any of the major players at A24, right? We haven't heard from, I'm gonna throw some people out there that work with A24, we haven't heard from the Daniels, we haven't heard from Ari Aster, we haven't heard from Robert Eggers, Barry Jenkins, Celine Song, Sophia Koppela, even Sean Baker, who's made quite a few A24 films. So I'm really curious if any of them are going to, because some people have, but they don't really work with A24 directly. So I'm curious if in the next couple weeks or in the upcoming days, if any of them comment on it, because no one has said anything.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

Yeah. And I mean, I think it's interesting that there's been a lot of big name celebrities who are really like wholeheartedly full throating their support for AI. So I'm thinking that some of us are going to be kind of disappointed in the upcoming weeks with who is like, yeah, no, this is the best thing since sliced bread, and be like, ugh.

SPEAKER_00 30:11

And if but we will say, folks, that at least for now, we are not ending the show. But I will say though, it will not hopefully affect our ratings when we look at the the films going forward.

SPEAKER_02 30:22

As long as it's anything before 2027.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

That's Kayla's cutoff date.

SPEAKER_02 30:29

Yes, put a nail in the coffin for that year.

SPEAKER_03 30:32

Oh, she's only watching films up until 2027. We're done. No films after this.

SPEAKER_00 30:39

It makes the wheel so much easier, right? We'll get done in a quicker amount of time. There you go. Um, well, any final words, guys, about this topic before we wrap it up?

SPEAKER_02 30:49

I hope we are proven wrong. Well, I hope I am proven wrong. I'm the one who's the most critical of it. So I hope that the whatever happens in the future is like, okay, well, now in hindsight, then maybe that was a good idea, but right now it makes me like want to choke on those words.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

So yeah, it's uh it's something all right. Uh but I'm glad we got to do this episode. So thank you to my co-hosts Amanda, Darren, and Kaylin for doing this special episode. Hopefully, we'll do more special episodes, by the way. Because these are always kind of fun where we're a little unfiltered, but we always have fun. So uh I usually do all the social media plugs, but we're not gonna do for this episode because you know what? You know where to find us. So uh don't add us if you don't like our opinions uh on this episode. So that's really why I'm not putting the social media handles on here. So uh I just want to say thank you to our co-hosts for doing this episode. Thank you to our listeners for checking us out. Hopefully, we'll see you soon, and uh have a good one, guys.