Mike Ovitz has spent a long time watching Hollywood lose billions to piracy. Now, armed with synthetic intelligence and some cellphone calls to the world’s greatest music executives, the legendary energy participant thinks he’s lastly discovered a approach to combat again.
“The leisure and media enterprise has been on the defensive on IP theft from day one,” Ovitz instructed me. “For the primary time in historical past, we’re on the offense not the protection.”
The Hollywood insider, 78, has been within the mental property trenches for many years. He co-founded Artistic Artists Company in 1975 and served as its chairman for 20 years. It was the period of tremendous brokers, and Ovitz was some of the notable within the enterprise, repping high expertise like Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg. He left CAA in 1995 and joined Disney as president, however he clashed with CEO Michael Eisner and departed after 16 months — with a hefty severance package deal. He then shifted his focus to Silicon Valley, the place he started investing in and advising high firms like Palantir and GoodRx in addition to companies like Andreessen Horowitz.
Now, working with AI professional Walter De Brouwer, Ovitz has launched Sound Patrol, a analysis lab that may detect piracy, forgery and copyright infringement. They consider they’ve discovered an answer to IP theft in music — with plans to increase past audio.
“I don’t assume that what Walter’s group got here up with was doable 12 months in the past,” he stated. “The ability of AI is past comprehension.”
Sound Patrol depends on neural fingerprinting — a sophisticated audio expertise that offers totally different sounds fingerprints to establish them — which has been personalized by De Brouwer.
In contrast to Shazam, which solely matches actual copies, Sound Patrol can detect distorted variations, manipulated audio, and AI-generated tracks that incorporate fragments from copyrighted works. The system operates as what the corporate calls a large-scale “24/7 surveillance system” monitoring for unlicensed exercise in actual time.
It’s an issue that has plagued the leisure trade for ages, and Ovitz is combating it in a fashion befitting a Hollywood veteran — dialing for {dollars} and making offers.
“I picked up the cellphone and referred to as my longtime buddy Lucian Grainge who runs Common Music,” Ovitz stated. “We each agreed that piracy has been the bane of the existence of IP holders for so long as anybody can bear in mind. The minute I instructed him what it was about … he stated I’m in.”
He struck an analogous take care of Sony after talking with high executives Rob Stringer and Dennis Kooker; Warner has but to signal on.
Sony and Common are allowed to deploy the expertise nonetheless they need — whether or not which means sending warnings to infringers, issuing takedown calls for by their authorized departments or selecting to take no motion in any respect.
De Brouwer additionally helps music labels reaching licensing agreements with AI firms, believing regulation will assist distinguish reputable use from “unfair and legal” functions of the expertise.
However music is simply the place to begin. The founders see their neural fingerprinting expertise as relevant to any type of media — and past.
The expertise works throughout what De Brouwer calls the “4 modalities” of human communication: sound, voice, textual content, and imaginative and prescient. Meaning it may ultimately detect manipulated movies, deep faux voices, fraudulent promoting and misinformation throughout any social media platform.
“Music is definitely the toughest half to get into,” De Brouwer defined. “As soon as you are able to do it in music, you are able to do it in the remainder of the leisure [industry].”
Crucially, the system can hint content material again to its supply — figuring out if one thing was created by AI, which mannequin model was used and the way it was distributed. The corporate has already introduced plans to increase into video and sports activities content material safety.
Sound Patrol operates on a subscription-based mannequin, with main labels like Common and Sony paying for entry to its monitoring expertise and real-time dashboards. This enterprise-focused method, somewhat than focusing on particular person artists, has allowed Sound Patrol to rapidly scale and place itself as trade infrastructure.
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Ovitz sees IP safety as just the start. “The ability of the algorithms that Walter and his group have created, the policing of IP safety is the tip of the iceberg for what this may do,” he stated. “We’re going to make use of what we’ve developed for each conceivable type of theft or untruth.”
Their ambitions lengthen to combating deepfakes in political promoting, fraudulent medical claims on social media, and artificial content material designed to deceive. Each founders emphasised that the power to differentiate actual from faux content material is vital not only for leisure, however for democracy and public well being.
“We’re on the one-inch line, however we’re an inch additional than anyone else,” Ovitz stated.
After all, avoiding a world that doesn’t mirror the dystopian plot of “Mountainhead” — wherein a social media platform’s deep-fake video instruments spark world chaos, riots, and assassinations — appears unimaginable to do with out some type of authorities help.
After I requested whether or not Sound Patrol has the power to resolve this by itself, Ovitz stated he sees a necessity for a corporation like his to work with the federal government, however not depend upon it to encourage innovation.
“A public-private partnership that has to happen,” he instructed me. “I do consider that the personal expertise neighborhood has bought to take a management place right here.”
And Ovitz, who has seen the problem of copyright and IP theft threaten Hollywood from the period of VHS tapes to CDs to Napster, stated he has by no means been extra optimistic about how AI can resolve this myriad of issues.
“The truth that expertise at present, for the primary time ever, has allowed us to police these points … it’s incredible.”
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