The Studio Behind ‘Ex Machina’ Is Now Researching AI With Google

Google is investing roughly $75 million in unbiased movie studio A24 as a part of a brand new synthetic intelligence analysis joint initiative, in keeping with a report by the Wall Avenue Journal.

In response to the Wall Avenue JournalGoogle’s DeepMind division and A24 will collaborate on instruments for movie manufacturing and distribution, marking the primary time Google has taken a stake in a film studio.

Whereas the settlement reportedly doesn’t give Google entry to A24’s movie and tv library, the deal brings collectively one of many world’s largest AI builders with the studio recognized for movies together with “Ex Machina,” Alex Garland’s 2014 thriller concerning the risks of synthetic intelligence, in addition to the current breakout hit “Backrooms.”

A24 companion Scott Belsky tried to ease considerations that Google’s take care of the studio would result in the form of generative AI instruments that many filmmakers have criticized, telling the Journal that the businesses are centered on instruments that protect inventive management and help filmmakers.

“We expect there are higher makes use of that protect inventive management and help risk-taking,” Belsky advised the Wall Avenue Journalincluding, “will not look something just like the prompted technology kind of AI that folks really feel uncomfortable with.”

The information comes as Google has expanded its outreach to filmmakers. In January 2026, the corporate dedicated $2 million to AI coaching applications for artists by the Sundance Institute and different filmmaking organizations. In April, Google unveiled Maps Imagery Grounding, a brand new AI-powered software that lets filmmakers and inventive companies generate pictures and animated scenes primarily based on real-world areas utilizing Google Avenue View knowledge.

As a part of the deal, A24 and Google plan to develop instruments for movie manufacturing and distribution. A24’s present know-how and innovation division, A24 Labs, is already creating an AI-assisted storyboarding software designed to assist filmmakers establish potential manufacturing points earlier than filming begins.

“We consider breakthroughs occur once you get know-how into the arms of the perfect minds within the discipline,” Eli Collins, a vice chairman of product for DeepMind, mentioned.

The deal comes as Hollywood continues to debate AI’s function in filmmaking following months-long strikes by SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America in 2023. In December 2025, business figures, together with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Natasha Lyonne, launched the Creators Coalition on AI to push for requirements governing AI coaching and use.

Earlier this month, “Backrooms” director Kane Parsons criticized generative AI, calling it a supply of “genuinely dangerous penalties” and a part of a broader “cultural and financial rot.”

“If I may snap my fingers and make generative AI disappear perpetually, I in all probability would,” Parsons told The Australian.