Artificial intelligence is a juggernaut that’s poised to disrupt everything, but that doesn’t necessarily spell the end for jobs in the entertainment industry. In fact, it could be the key to reinvigorating a Hollywood that’s long too relied on safe blockbusters.
“AI tooling that does that is really a silver bullet for Hollywood…It’s ultimately going to create more jobs if the industry is thriving,” said Scott Mann, founder and co-CEO of Flawless AI, who explained that the technology could be used to lower production costs and enable bets on more a wider range of projects.
That’s one of the key takeaways from a WrapPRO roundtable discussion on AI, where Mann was joined by four other experts: Richard Kerris, Nvidia’s vice president and GM of media and entertainment; Sarah Charlton, chief business officer of AI video production company Moonvalley; Hannah Elsakr, Adobe’s vice president new GenAI business ventures, and Van Robichaux, a writer and producer for “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” who is now writing the sequel to “Wedding Crashers.”
The roundtable comes at a pivotal time, with talk of AI just about everywhere and the pressure to embrace the technology only increasing. The technology has been in the sights of Hollywood, with the issue being a sticking point in the last negotiations between the various unions and the studios.
The topics ranged from the responsible use of copyrighted material to train AI models to the question about what the technology will do to AI.
The participants, who spoke to Roger Cheng, TheWrap’s managing editor for business and PRO, were bullish on AI’s potential for filmmakers. But they all understood the importance of employing the technology the right way to unlock its potential.
“We’re incredibly excited about it, because it does help democratize what has traditionally been a very difficult and costly environment to create the kind of visuals that people want to use to tell great stories,” Kerris said.
It can do so by offering relatively cheap tools to upstart filmmakers, he added. Those tools can then be used to bring stories to life that otherwise would not have been made only a few years ago.
Seeing AI as a “tool” to boost creativity, rather than curtail original ideas or cut jobs, was a view several of the panelists took.
Elsakr echoed Kerris, likening AI to “just another paintbrush in the toolkit of artistry.” And Mann, the co-founder of Flawless AI, a company that specializes in generative AI tools for filmmakers, said he is focused on making “tools for artists that help artists.”
Analyzing the impact
At the same time, the potential for AI to help on the production side has raised concerns it could decimate large swaths of the entertainment industry. Just this week, Bloomberg reported Netflix used Runway AI’s video software for production work, and more filmmakers are feeling comfortable discussing how they are using AI.
In May, Brian Grazer said he is “excited” by AI and that Imagine Entertainment has used AI on post-production work, including for its recent “Churchill at War” Netflix documentary; at the same time, Grazer said he does not believe AI will replace human writers anytime soon.
Robichaux said the “big concern” in Hollywood right now is whether AI will kill jobs. He told Cheng that, while he feels those concerns are “warranted,” he is optimistic AI can spur more storytelling — which will ultimately lead to more production and jobs.
“If you look at how the output of Hollywood has reduced in the last two years, what you can see is that what will bring more jobs is more production,” Robichaux said.
He continued: “And I do think that bringing down some of these [production] costs [with AI], while it might seem we’re employing fewer people — and that might be true on a project by project basis — but if it increases the number of projects being made, I think that can actually lead to an increase [in entertainment jobs].”
Ethics in AI
How to use AI in an ethical way is a key issue in the media and entertainment worlds currently. And it was inevitably brought up during this roundtable discussion as well, with the word “ethical” being used two dozen times.
Both Robichaux and Mann noted there is a “trust” issue right now among creators and AI companies, where creators are worried their work is being used to train models without consent or compensation.
This looks like it could become an even bigger sticking point moving forward after AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI were given the green light to train their models on copyrighted work, as long as they pay for it. The ruling gave a lot of wiggle room for how that can be done; rather than striking an expensive licensing deal with The New York Times, for example, AI companies can pay $2.50 for a copy of the Times and legally upload it to their database, according to the ruling from a California federal judge.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump even said that AI companies shouldn’t be expected to pay for all of that copyrighted content.
“You can’t be expected to have a successful AI program when every single article, book or whatever you’ve studied, you’re expected to pay for,” the president said.
Moonvalley’s Charlton said her company is trying to find a middle ground that works for all sides. She added her company is aiming build a “commercially safe” option that will “empower [filmmakers’] storytelling, without needing to make compromises on the underlying data sets or the creative choices that are being made.”
Elsakr, similarly, noted it is still the “early innings” of AI and the rules are still being written around how it can be used. But she said Adobe, whose customers now generate over 1 billion assets each month using its Firefly generative AI models, wants to make sure “human ingenuity” remains the “center of the craft.”
How the majority of AI companies and studios move forward, though, will be sorted out as more copyright cases make their way through court. And this issue remains front of mind for creators like Aubrey Plaza and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who said earlier this year they are worried writers and copyright holders are not being compensated fairly for having their work used to train AI models.
Looking ahead, Mann said he remains optimistic that AI, rather than leading to a net drop in jobs, will spur a new era of moviemaking that will ultimately be good for Hollywood.
“The key to have a growing and thriving industry — which, right now, it isn’t. Right now, we don’t have that. We only have movies with massive budgets getting made, and very little risks and originality,” Mann said. “[The key is] bringing the cost and time it takes to make productions [down], which opens up for more originality [and] allows you to do more with less.”
You can watch the video of WrapPRO’s full panel conversation above.
Join top tech leaders from Fox, Paramount and USC as they break down how AI is moving from concept to production — and what that means for the future of storytelling. Don’t miss “From Ideation to Innovation: AI in the Studio Pipeline” at TheGrill 2025.
September 30 · DGA Theater, Los Angeles
