The same reason opiod companies paid doctors to promote their opiods: legitamacy.

• Opiods were marketed as a wonder-drug painkiller.
• Then a bunch of doctors got kickbacks for writing prescriptions for opiods.
• This made them seem popular, at least enough that a large majority of the US then started getting prescribed and asking for opiods.

Instead it created the opioid crisis that still has addicts suffering to this day.

• AI is being marketed as a wonder tool for film.
• A bunch of animation studios are getting kickbacks to use AI.
• The goal is to make AI seem legitamate and popular. The animation studios work will be used to hide how terrible the AI is at doing their job. However, their work, and any of it’s results, will likely be credited to the AI, not them. Which is why they’re being paid well. It’s the same as the kickback for the doctors.

Basically, the studio is being paid to pretend that the AI they use is as talented as them. It’s not, but they’re clearly getting paid to animate a movie that AI is already taking credit for.

At the end, Sam Altman will use the movie to promote the abilities of AI, when in reality AI can’t make that kind of movie without 30 million and an actual animation studio to do the work.

AI will seem more legitimate. People will use it more despite never getting the results advertised. Mission accomplished.