00:11:35 · Sachin, Anastasis Germanidis
[00:11:35] S1: There's a lot of discourse about the way Hollywood is reacting to how quickly these models are getting better. And as people on both sides, you know, I've I've read a lot about how actually way more people in Hollywood are using these things than they than they let out. How do you think about the creators that will say that these models getting better is like an existential threat to their jobs and their livelihoods and the kind of, you know, craftsmanship in the work that they create? [00:12:01] S2: Yeah. So I think the the easiest way to answer that question is just by pointing examples in history where it seemed like this new technology would completely eliminate the role of the artist and the creative and it turned out that it kind of multiplied and it and there were as a result of those technologies there were more and more artists and creatives than ever before so you can see the same thing with you know like Photoshop and like the with and even even before that with you know the invention photography and how that you know, essentially created modern art as we know it. So I think there's always this, like, like, you know, the history of art and the history of technology have always been very intertwined and every change in technology does does change the, you know, the roles and the kind of job descriptions, ultimately it expands and, like, grows the the number of people that can now be part of, you know, can can be artists, can be creatives.
00:12:01 · Anastasis Germanidis, Adam Miller
[00:12:01] S2: Yeah. So I think the the easiest way to answer that question is just by pointing examples in history where it seemed like this new technology would completely eliminate the role of the artist and the creative and it turned out that it kind of multiplied and it and there were as a result of those technologies there were more and more artists and creatives than ever before so you can see the same thing with you know like Photoshop and like the with and even even before that with you know the invention photography and how that you know, essentially created modern art as we know it. So I think there's always this, like, like, you know, the history of art and the history of technology have always been very intertwined and every change in technology does does change the, you know, the roles and the kind of job descriptions, ultimately it expands and, like, grows the the number of people that can now be part of, you know, can can be artists, can be creatives. [00:13:00] S0: And for the future vision, do you see a world in maybe a few years' time, five years' time, where people will be making major movies just with products like Runway, doing all the scripting in there and having all the generation of many different frames in there, doing the post in there and we'll be able to go to the cinema and watch a movie made on Runway.
00:13:00 · Adam Miller, Anastasis Germanidis
[00:13:00] S0: And for the future vision, do you see a world in maybe a few years' time, five years' time, where people will be making major movies just with products like Runway, doing all the scripting in there and having all the generation of many different frames in there, doing the post in there and we'll be able to go to the cinema and watch a movie made on Runway. [00:13:19] S2: I hope so. Think that's definitely like I don't see any reason why it won't happen like if you look at the improvement of the models and the ability to generate kind of longer and longer sequences the ability to keep consistency of, you know, character settings, environments, I think the... It's it's very likely that, you know, you'd be able to... And you... Already, we have a large community of of filmmakers that are that are using Runway to make to make films, less so feature length films at this point, but there is no fundamental reason where the models are not gonna improve and get there. [00:13:55] S0: And under that world, if we are making fully AI generated films, those films aren't going to need, you know, the hundreds, sometimes thousands of people which are needed to make films now, so do you think what will offset that is that we'll just be making far more films into the future so that there'll be so many more creators, more films being made, and on net, we just have more artists.
00:13:55 · Adam Miller, Anastasis Germanidis, Sachin
[00:13:55] S0: And under that world, if we are making fully AI generated films, those films aren't going to need, you know, the hundreds, sometimes thousands of people which are needed to make films now, so do you think what will offset that is that we'll just be making far more films into the future so that there'll be so many more creators, more films being made, and on net, we just have more artists. [00:14:14] S2: There are roughly, like, thousands of films being released every year and millions of books being published. Like, why does that gap exist? Because it's so hard and so, you know, resource intensive to make a film. So it's exactly what you said that the the number of... We're we're more bottlenecked by supply than demand. There is, I think, a lot more latent demand to watch amazing stories that are not being told. And so I think that's what we're gonna see, that we're gonna see way more way more films in the in the world and then way more new kinds of experiences that are powered by those models. [00:14:47] S1: At the kind of deepest level, I'm sure there's been many times over the last few years where it felt impossible or it felt like you may not get there. What is the thing that has kept you going? Like, what is the world you wanna see with Runway that has kept you going? Because it seems like you're quite a philosophical person. So, know, what what is that kind of vision?
00:14:47 · Sachin, Anastasis Germanidis
[00:14:47] S1: At the kind of deepest level, I'm sure there's been many times over the last few years where it felt impossible or it felt like you may not get there. What is the thing that has kept you going? Like, what is the world you wanna see with Runway that has kept you going? Because it seems like you're quite a philosophical person. So, know, what what is that kind of vision? [00:15:06] S2: The vision is so there's a lot of things that are very motivating internally as we you know it's building those models is difficult as you're saying and it requires a lot of iteration and a lot of false starts and and challenges. I think one thing that is always motivating for the team is like the, you know, the outputs of your work are empowering people to make really really compelling amazing stories And I think that's always, like, a big part of, like, what makes Runway a very motivating place to to work is that you you get to see, like, the fruits of of your work be... Be... Being translated into films, which is quite amazing. I think we're very inspired by this idea of simulating the world, of essentially being able to build models that can deeply understand and help us solve real world problems. And that's a broader application from storytelling, which is our core. We think those models are far more powerful and they can... The the ability to, as we scale those models, are gonna be useful kind of beyond film, beyond kind of storytelling and towards solving real world problems.
00:15:06 · Anastasis Germanidis, Adam Miller
[00:15:06] S2: The vision is so there's a lot of things that are very motivating internally as we you know it's building those models is difficult as you're saying and it requires a lot of iteration and a lot of false starts and and challenges. I think one thing that is always motivating for the team is like the, you know, the outputs of your work are empowering people to make really really compelling amazing stories And I think that's always, like, a big part of, like, what makes Runway a very motivating place to to work is that you you get to see, like, the fruits of of your work be... Be... Being translated into films, which is quite amazing. I think we're very inspired by this idea of simulating the world, of essentially being able to build models that can deeply understand and help us solve real world problems. And that's a broader application from storytelling, which is our core. We think those models are far more powerful and they can... The the ability to, as we scale those models, are gonna be useful kind of beyond film, beyond kind of storytelling and towards solving real world problems. [00:16:25] S0: On that last point, you are talking a lot about world models these days. Silicon Valley is also talking a lot about that and companies are raising huge seed rounds for them. Could you explain from your perspective what a world model actually is and how Runway are going to be utilising them and just sort of juxtapose them against the sort of previous generations of models that you've built.