As artificial intelligence (AI) enjoys its moment in the sun, the debate rages on whether such illumination is a benefit or peril to a variety of different industries. Hollywood and the entertainment industry is one sector where AI continues to create headlines—and fears—around diminished human creativity.

One company refusing to partake in the belief that AI technology is a negative is Incention—a new entertainment platform backed by venture-capital fund a16z crypto that provides creators and intellectual property (IP) holders with tools for collaboration, licensing and revenue sharing. The company’s AI agent “Atlas” is meant to help orchestrate collaboration between human creators and powerful creative tooling to tell stories more efficiently.

As part of its launch today, Incention is rolling out its debut project, Emergence, from acclaimed Hollywood-heavyweight David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight trilogy, Blade)—a digital sci-fi universe he specifically designed to be built upon by fans and the larger creator economy.

“Our main focus is on reinventing how franchises grow, evolve and are launched in this modern age,” Spencer Marell, co-founder and chief operating officer at Incention, said to me during a recent interview. “We’ve been focused on embracing frontier technology to help empower creators and their communities to connect further and grow these properties. For us, that looks like embracing blockchain networks as a foundational piece for how we’re building out the platform.”

The embracing of blockchain is what led Incention to build on Story, a blockchain that transforms IP into programmable digital assets and empowers IP holders to tokenize, protect, share and monetize their ideas.

Most of the on-chain infrastructure will live on Story, elements like licensing and royalty management, with Incention resting as a layer above Story as a development application.

Spencer Marell

“We’re taking all of the infrastructure that building on blockchain provides and then trying to abstract that into one consumer application experience with Incention,” Marell said. “There’s a lot of minutia at the intersection of crypto and Hollywood, and you need something that’s purpose-built to service a franchise so it can grow, expand and develop outside of PFPs or other crypto-native pieces.”

What Story’s infrastructure allows is the ability to track attribution at scale, enabling people to permissionlessly create content that’s verifiable on-chain, without needing a massive legal team or legal department to decipher who’s creating what. Incention’s platform then allows creators to set their “IP parameters” in code rather than paper contracts.

“Story enables you to do that at scale,” Marell said. “You could have hundreds if not thousands of creators contributing, developing and advancing any franchise, which was a big piece with Emergence.”

Another area they are tackling is figuring out payments to creators.

“As people develop different things and value is accruing to those assets in an ecosystem, you want to be able to compensate those people,” Marell said. “In the same way you can attribute credit and license content at scale, you can also funnel revenue and funds on-chain globally and seamlessly. The financial elements—combined with the scale of information—is something we’re excited to bring to market.”

But there’s also an elevated excitement around Emergence because of the creator and creative partner behind it, Goyer, whose Hollywood legacy is enticing people to explore the project on his name alone.

“He knowingly designed the Emergence universe to be built upon and created a 20-page world bible that will live on our website,” Marell said. “In that world bible Goyer outlines the story, different premises, an introduction to the world, the conflicts, the different races and factions and the basis for this universe.”

The Belle

Goyer also provided jumping off points for outside creators to come in, write stories, craft different multimedia, and to collaborate with Atlas—the AI co-pilot that’s been trained on all of Goyer’s work—to generate new IP assets. It’s all part of a broader vision Goyer had when partnering with Incention to create a world with blockchain technology and AI tech in mind.

“Emergence is a story universe designed as a creative sandbox—a galaxy shaped by mysterious forces where storytellers can explore limitless narratives, empowering both creators and audiences to play a role in shaping the canon, together,” Goyer said. “With Incention’s tools and Story’s technology, creators can add characters, worlds, and relics, all tracked and financially compensated across mediums. We’re inviting collaborators to help weave this evolving tapestry of tales.”

While it remains to be seen if Incention’s take on AI and blockchain tech will help pioneer a new wave of creators and creativity, Incention is hopeful Emergence can at least crack the code on crafting a successful narrative around community-driven storytelling.

“The current IP landscape faces unprecedented challenges as digital content explodes and traditional frameworks fall short with the rise of AI,” said Jason Zhao, co-founder and chief protocol officer of PIP Labs and core contributor to Story. “By introducing AI agents that can add rather than detract from productivity and creativity, Story transforms IP into a dynamic, networked resource.”

lead image: David S. Goyer, photo by Sharon Sue