Google Funds AI Training for Artists as Hollywood Debates the Tech’s Role – Decrypt

Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, said it is investing $2 million in the Sundance Institute to train more than 100,000 artists in foundational AI skills, arriving as creators and technologists push for clearer, enforceable rules governing how artificial intelligence is trained and used across the entertainment industry.

The funding will support the creation of an AI Literacy Alliance in collaboration with The Gotham and Film Independent, two non-profit organisations that support independent filmmaking, according to a statement released Tuesday.

The Sundance Institute, a non-profit organisation that champions independent storytelling and hosts the annual Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, will lead the community-driven education effort as part of Google.org’s AI Opportunity Fund.

The initiative includes free online curriculum development, scholarships for Google courses like AI Essentials, and an AI Creators Fellowship for technical experimentation.

Only a quarter of media companies are investing in AI training, as the pace of AI change has become “overwhelming,” according to the statement.

The platform also gave storytellers early access to Flow, its AI filmmaking tool, and launched “AI on Screen” with Range Media Partners to explore humanity’s relationship with technology through films about AI.

The announcement builds on Google’s year-long collaboration with filmmakers, including director Eliza McNitt’s short film Ancestra, which premiered at the Tribeca Festival last June and used Google’s Veo model to blend live-action footage with AI-generated sequences and new motion-matching capabilities.

Training 100,000 artists in foundation AI skills frames AI as a “baseline creative competency” rather than a niche skill, a shift that could ultimately change how independent filmmakers prototype ideas, manage budgets, and iterate creatively, Kevin Chang, culture tech researcher at the Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute, told Decrypt.

“This initiative reflects a broader trend: major tech players are no longer just supplying AI capabilities, but actively helping define how AI should responsibly coexist with human creativity,” he added.

As Sundance expands its focus on AI education, Hollywood remains divided between cautious experimentation and growing resistance over issues of consent, misuse and creative control.

Last month, a coalition of writers, actors, and technologists launched the Creators Coalition on AI, pushing for enforceable rules governing how AI is trained and used across entertainment. 

Actor Matthew McConaughey recently secured eight trademarks, including a sound mark on his “Alright, alright, alright” catchphrase, to potentially deter unauthorized AI-generated content featuring his voice or likeness.

“The floodgates are open. It’s never been easier to steal an individual’s digital likeness—their voice, their face—and now, bring it to life with a single image,” Emmanuelle Saliba, Chief Investigative Officer at cybersecurity firm GetReal Security, previously told Decrypt.

Actor Ben Affleck recently spoke on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast that AI “goes to the mean, to the average” and is better suited as a tool rather than a replacement for human creativity.

“It’s going to be good at filling in all the places that are expensive and burdensome,” Affleck said, while noting that AI won’t create films comparable to work by directors like Orson Welles.