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Weta FX takes its artist-controlled AI to Taiwan, with training new talent on the table

Weta FX and Taiwan's state content agency TAICCA launch an AI partnership in Taipei on November 6, with joint investment, AI research and training new talent. Weta's AI so far keeps artists at the controls: clean-up and crowd motion, not typed prompts. No money, tools or training intake is public yet.

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The studio behind the effects in The Lord of the Rings and Avatar is taking its AI to Taiwan, and its pitch keeps the artist at the controls. Weta FX launches a partnership with Taiwan's state content agency TAICCA on Friday, Nov 6, at Taiwan Creative Content Fest in Taipei.

Weta's chief technology officer, Kimball Thurston, put the studio's view plainly in October: "For a visual artist, a text-based prompt is not the best way to interact with this technology." Weta uses AI for image clean-up and the motion in crowd scenes, "not necessarily for generating images," he said. Its tools deal with Amazon Web Services last December aimed at intuitive, interactive controls for artists, not chatbots or text prompts.

People are on the bill too. Variety reports three strands, joint investment, AI research and training new talent, and Weta VFX supervisor Sheldon Stopsack joins CEO Daniel Seah and Thurston on stage. TAICCA chair Sue Wang has said visual effects and post-production are the most suitable place to start with AI in cultural work.

The caveat: the specifics are held back until Friday. No money, timeline, tools or training intake is public yet, so who the training reaches is still open.

Our take: one of the most respected effects houses is betting on AI that artists steer, not prompt boxes. If Friday's training strand opens to working crews, that craft gets a new door.

Source: Variety, Nov 3, 2026; CNA, Oct 30, 2026; Deadline, Oct 10, 2026.

Read the full article: thegenerated.com/stories/weta-fx-taicca-taiwan-ai-partnership-20261104

Provenance — Variety: Weta FX, TAICCA partner to make Taiwan an AI screen production hub (EXCLUSIVE); Deadline, Nov 2025: TAICCA CEO Erica Wang on AI-assisted filmmaking co-investment · Status: single-source, reported

Weta FX and Taiwan's TAICCA launch an AI deal. Who gets trained is still open

Film

NBCUniversal joins an $80M bet on EloElo, whose founder says AI replaced the sets, not the actors

NBCUniversal and Hornbill Capital co-led an $80 million Series C in EloElo, whose Story TV app releases about 250 microdramas a month. NBCUniversal's statement is about microdramas and the US market, not AI, and its stake is under 5%. EloElo's own pitch for its Dolphin AI suite promises no crew, while its founder says AI replaced sets and VFX.

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In The Bose Network, Joy Sengupta plays Subhas Chandra Bose on the run across four countries and four years of the Second World War, from Calcutta to Kabul to wartime Berlin and into the interiors of two submarines. Story TV, the Indian microdrama app that premiered the series at midnight on 15 August, says those period environments were built in post-production with its parent company's AI tools, around a real cast and a real cinematographer.

That show is the clearest picture of what NBCUniversal has just bought into. EloElo Group, the Bengaluru company behind Story TV, announced on Wednesday 4 November that it has raised an $80 million Series C co-led by Hornbill Capital and NBCUniversal. MIT Investment Company joined as a new investor, and Play Ventures, Kalaari Capital, WaterBridge Ventures and Griffin Gaming Partners came back in. EloElo has now raised $130 million in total. Reuters, Mint and Business Standard all put the valuation at about $500 million, each citing people familiar with the deal, and the company hasn't confirmed it.

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Weta FX takes its artist-controlled AI to Taiwan, with training new talent on the table

NBCUniversal joins an $80M bet on EloElo, whose founder says AI replaced the sets, not the actors

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