Skydance wants to avoid the rise of AI slop, but David Ellison is seeking to deploy AI as it strives to make its productions more economical. David Ellison, the CEO of Skydance and overseer of both Warner Bros and Paramount, has confirmed that AI is going to be a component of his plans going forward. ... Skydance CEO David Ellison wants AI to help “make content faster and cheaper”
Skydance wants to avoid the rise of AI slop, but David Ellison is seeking to deploy AI as it strives to make its productions more economical.
David Ellison, the CEO of Skydance and overseer of both Warner Bros and Paramount, has confirmed that AI is going to be a component of his plans going forward. Which, given that the purchase of his empire was part-funded by his father’s fortune (Larry Ellison founded Oracle, which is all-in on AI tech), is hardly the biggest surprise.
In an earnings call this week, David Ellison does seem to want to have his cake and eat it a little bit. He told shareholders that he thinks AI can help his companies “make content faster and cheaper”, but also guarded against the clear and obvious rise of AI slop.
Note the use of the word ‘content’ over ‘films and TV shows.’
He draws comparison with the rise of CG following Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park in the early 1990s, and shared his belief that “it’s hard to imagine that AI is not going to have a more significant impact than that. I personally believe that’s going to be an incredible unlock on creativity.”
Furthermore, he invoked James Cameron, another billionaire whose living won’t be materially affected by what AI is doing to employment in the lower echelons of creative industries. Ellison argues that if you want to make the original The Terminator now, it’s cost $60m-70m, as opposed to the $4m that Cameron had to play with.
Cameron, too, is all in on AI, as has been covered here.
Skydance has already begun the process of shaving jobs as it seeks to pay off some of the debt incurred by the purchase of Warner Bros and Paramount, and it’s going to be using AI workflows as part of the its attempts to reduce headcount.
There’s more on David Ellison’s plans here. Nothing here is particularly surprising or even radical at the moment. A cursory glance at the number of people in the film industry suddenly looking for work on services such as LinkedIn, though, offer a potent reminder of the impact all of this is having on human beings.
Still, billionaires have to eat, eh?
