Hollywood has no idea what to do about AI
OpenAI is moving fast while the entertainment industry wrings its hands. Also: this week on ACCESS and some links.
This week, I got an up-close look at how far apart Silicon Valley and Hollywood are on what to do about AI.
First, at OpenAI DevDay, Sam Altman presented the new Sora app as a gift to content creators. If anything, he suggested, OpenAI was being too censorious by not allowing people to make even more kinds of AI videos.
“On the whole, creators, rights holders, people are very excited about the potential of this,” Altman said during a media Q&A in San Francisco on Monday that I attended. “They believe it will deepen connection. It’s kind of like a new generation of fanfiction.”
The next day, I arrived at Bloomberg’s Screentime event in Los Angeles to hear how media executives, agents, and studio heads felt about the AI meteor that’s heading their way. Sora had just hit one million downloads in the App Store and was top of mind for everyone. Altogether, I came away with the impression that Hollywood’s leaders still have no idea what to do about the risk AI poses, and they’re going to be steamrolled by technology that’s moving faster than they can comprehend.
I lost count of how many times a version of the phrase “we care about copyright” was invoked at Screentime like a prayer. At the same time, no one at the event wanted to specifically address the fact that OpenAI clearly trained on their IP without permission and unleashed a product that, at least initially, had no shame in making that clear. The fact that Hollywood’s leaders are unable to share a public perspective on this issue, or more importantly, what they are going to do about it, should be alarming to everyone working in the business.
While onstage, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters completely dodged a question from Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw about Sora specifically, and instead waxed about the more boring ways that AI is being used throughout nearly every part of the production process. Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison also chose to tout the less controversial, tool-like aspect of AI, calling it a “new pencil” to create with. The only executive I heard come close to addressing the real issue on everyone’s minds was Warner Music CEO (and former YouTube exec) Robert Kyncl, who made clear that Warner’s content must be licensed to train on, and that there will be repercussions for those who don’t follow the rules.
It’s not surprising that the music industry has a stronger perspective than, say, the hemming and hawing about AI currently being done by the big talent agencies. The labels are better positioned to take on AI companies as a consolidated group of players who have navigated a version of this problem before with the rise of music streaming. Kyncl went so far as to predict that AI will benefit the music industry long-term, similar to how YouTube eventually solved its copyright problem and evolved into a major distribution platform for the entertainment industry.
He may be right about music specifically, but the lack of collective action from the rest of Hollywood means that the AI companies are poised to keep getting away with asking for forgiveness instead of permission. OpenAI’s decision to train Sora in this manner was a deliberate choice, not an accident, and it showed a complete lack of regard for the implications of sucking up everyone’s content to feed its AI. Altman is simply following the same playbook the tech industry has used in the past to achieve dominance, so who can blame him this time?
This week on ACCESS
This week on the show, I chat with Ellis about OpenAI’s DevDay and the AI slop culture war. Huxe CEO Raiza Martin then joins us to talk about why she left Google as one of the inventors of NoteBookLM to build Huxe, a new kind of personalized AI audio app. We dig into why audio may be the killer use case for AI, the future of AI and podcasting, and what it feels like to have your branding copied by ChatGPT.
Like and subscribe to ACCESS wherever you get your podcasts.
Also, thanks to Ed Elson for having me on Prof G Markets earlier this week to discuss OpenAI’s big compute deals and my takeaways from DevDay.
More links
ICYMI: My interview with OpenAI’s Greg Brockman about Stargate.
Takeaways from The Curve conference, a fascinating gathering of AI folks that I definitely plan on attending next year.
Inside Peter Thiel’s lectures about the antichrist.
My weekend reading: the 2025 State of AI Report.
If you’ll be in Los Angeles on October 16th, I’ll be on a panel about the future of tech media hosted by Capital V in Venice. The RSVP link is here. If you want to come, just ping me and I’ll ensure you can attend.