Google DeepMind throws $75M at A24, hoping Hollywood actually wants its AI tools

Google DeepMind just wrote a $75 million check to A24, the indie studio behind “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and the genuinely unsettling “Backrooms.” The announcement landed Monday, and on paper, it sounds like a classic tech-meets-Hollywood partnership: DeepMind builds AI tools, A24 provides artist feedback, and everyone pretends the phrase “democratizing creativity” isn’t hovering in the air.

Demis Hassabis, DeepMind’s CEO, put it in the press release as you’d expect: “We believe the best way to develop tools that empower artists is to work directly with them.” That’s the kind of line that sounds great in a quote but means very little until we see what actually ships. Still, $75 million is real money, and A24 isn’t some random studio. They’ve got credibility, taste, and relationships with people like Timothée Chalamet and Anne Hathaway. That matters when you’re trying to convince skeptical filmmakers that your AI isn’t just a job-killing machine.

Let’s be honest about the elephant in the room: Hollywood has been in full panic mode about generative AI for over a year now. The strikes, the protests, the endless hand-wringing about replacing writers and VFX artists. So DeepMind is smart to frame this as a collaboration with artists rather than a replacement of them. But I’ve seen this playbook before. It’s the same language every tech company uses when they want to soften the blow of automation.

A24 isn’t the first studio to dip a toe in these waters. Netflix bought Ben Affleck’s AI company InterPositive earlier this year, and Amazon’s MGM launched its own AI unit last year. The difference here is that DeepMind is a research lab, not a streaming service. They’re not trying to optimize a recommendation algorithm. They’re trying to build actual creative tools. That’s harder, and more interesting.

The real test will be whether A24’s filmmakers actually use whatever comes out of this. If the tools are genuinely useful for pre-visualization, storyboarding, or even script development, they might get traction. If they’re just glorified filters and text-to-video generators, the whole thing will feel like a very expensive PR stunt. I’m leaning toward cautiously optimistic, but only because A24 has a track record of betting on weird, artistic risks. Maybe they’ll push DeepMind to build something that doesn’t suck.

What I’m watching for is how this affects the broader conversation about AI in entertainment. If A24 can make AI tools feel like a legitimate creative medium rather than a threat, it changes the narrative. If it backfires and becomes another example of tech money trying to buy cool, it sets the industry back another year. Either way, it’s going to be a fascinating mess to watch unfold.