2025 has been a breakthrough year for AI video. In this episode of the MAD Podcast, Matt Turck sits down with Cristóbal Valenzuela, CEO & Co-Founder of Runway, to explore how AI is reshaping the future of filmmaking, advertising, and storytelling - faster, cheaper, and in ways that were unimaginable even a year ago.
Cris and Matt discuss:
* How AI went from memes and spaghetti clips to IMAX film festivals.
* Why Gen-4 and Aleph are game-changing models for professionals.
* How Hollywood, advertisers, and creators are adopting AI video at scale.
* The future of storytelling: what happens to human taste, craft, and creativity when anyone can conjure movies on demand?
* Runway’s journey from 2018 skeptics to today’s cutting-edge research lab.
If you want to understand the future of filmmaking, media, and creativity in the AI age, this is the episode.
Runway
Website - https://runwayml.com
X/Twitter - https://x.com/runwayml
Cristóbal Valenzuela
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cvalenzuelab
X/Twitter - https://x.com/c_valenzuelab
FIRSTMARK
Website - https://firstmark.com
X/Twitter - https://twitter.com/FirstMarkCap
Matt Turck (Managing Director)
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/turck/
X/Twitter - https://twitter.com/mattturck
(00:00) Intro – AI Video's Wild Year
(01:48) Runway's AI Film Festival Goes from Chinatown to IMAX
(04:02) Hollywood's Shift: From Ignoring AI to Adopting It at Scale
(06:38) How Runway Saves VFX Artists' Weekends of Work
(07:31) Inside Gen-4 and Aleph: Why These Models Are Game-Changers
(08:21) From Editing Tools to a "New Kind of Camera"
(10:00) Beyond Film: Gaming, Architecture, E-Commerce & Robotics Use Cases
(10:55) Why Advertising Is Adopting AI Video Faster Than Anyone Else
(11:38) How Creatives Adapt When Iteration Becomes Real-Time
(14:12) What Makes Someone Great at AI Video (Hint: No Preconceptions)
(15:28) The Early Days: Building Runway Before Generative AI Was "Real"
(20:27) Finding Early Product-Market Fit
(21:51) Balancing Research and Product Inside Runway
(24:23) Comparing Aleph vs. Gen-4, and the Future of Generalist Models
(30:36) New Input Modalities: Editing with Video + Annotations, Not Just Text
(33:46) Managing Expectations: Twitter Demos vs. Real Creative Work
(47:09) The Future: Real-Time AI Video and Fully Explorable 3D Worlds
(52:02) Runway's Business Model: From Indie Creators to Disney & Lionsgate
(57:26) Competing with the Big Labs (Sora, Google, etc.)
(59:58) Hyper-Personalized Content? Why It May Not Replace Film
(01:01:13) Advice to Founders: Treat Your Company Like a Model — Always Learning
(01:03:06) The Next 5 Years of Runway: Changing Creativity Forever