Memo to Silicon Valley: Bring It On

New York City's Runway was the pioneering leader in Al-generated video for years. Now ChatGPT maker OpenAl is coming for it. 

- KYLIE ROBISON

CRISTÓBAL VALENZUELA is no stranger to weird, scary creatures. As cofounder and CEO of Runway, a five-year-old New York City startup that develops AI tools for video, his company's product has brought to life a parade of surreal on-screen characters, from shape-shifting dolls that melt into walls to dancing giants with contorted faces.

When I talk to Valenzuela on a winter afternoon, the conversation is about why some scary creatures-even the most menacing giants-aren't really scary if you know how to destroy them.

"Sometimes a sling and a stone is all you need," Valenzuela tells me.

We're talking about slings and stones because of the imposing shadow stretching over Valenzuela's company. Days before our chat, OpenAI, the $86 billion, Microsoft-backed juggernaut of generative AI, unveiled its latest creation: a text-to-video tool called Sora that essentially does what Runway does; in some cases, maybe better.

As with Runway's product, Sora lets users type a description of a scene into their computer-a woman walking along a puddlefilled street, for instance, or a fire-breathing dragon in flight-and within moments watch a video that looks as if it were produced in Hollywood.

Sora's buzzy unveiling caused instant speculation about the tidal wave of change headed for the entertainment industry. As if on cue, filmmaker Tyler Perry said he was putting on hold a planned $800 million expansion of his Atlanta production studio because of Sora. By late March, OpenAI execs were reportedly setting up meetings with studio execs and talent agencies to discuss how to use the tool.