As David Ellison takes over the newly formed Paramount Skydance, he has a clear message for Hollywood grappling with AI’s encroachment: don’t fear it.
“We’re not going to be afraid of tech, we’re going to embrace it,” Ellison said at a press event Thursday, where he fielded questions on his plans for the newly formed company. “I don’t think AI is a replacement for creativity.”
Hollywood has a split personality when it comes to AI. Some like Lionsgate and AMC have publicly acknowledged recent deals with prominent AI company Runway, and Netflix has shared how it’s used AI in the content creation process. Others, like Disney, have demurred about their work in the space, sensitive to the need to protect their famous IP and relations with talent who worry about the tech being used to steal their likeness and other risks. Disney and NBCUniversal are suing the AI company Midjourney, alleging copyright infringement.
Ellison, whose father, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, helped bankroll the merger, has made tech a big part of his pitch to combine his Skydance with the larger Paramount. He laid out a number of ways he plans to do that, starting with consolidation on the streaming side. The company has three streamers supported by three tech stacks, and the plan is to collapse those into one stack “really quickly.” He also plans to use AI to improve the ability for people to find shows they like on the streamers and impact how content is created.
Ellison stressed that his embrace of tech shouldn’t worry creatives, though. He compared the use of AI to Pixar popularizing 3D computer animation over hand-drawn animation in the 1990s.
“There was an uproar over the notion that technology was going to disrupt the animators,” he said. “And Pixar would always say, ‘We’re just giving the animators their own pencil to create things you could never create before.’ And I think we’re in another one of those times we’re going to see that level of shift.”
As far as applying AI, he said it could help make big-budget films.
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He gave the example of a blockbuster like the original “Terminator” and how it would be a lot more expensive to make today.
That “basically means that young artists and filmmakers actually can’t go out there and tell bold, original stories,” he said.
Ellison also imagined using advanced AI models to let people engage with characters directly: “That’s a lot closer, I think, than people realize it is.”
But while people have given one-off examples of how AI can make individual projects cheaper, no one really knows how much it can move the needle for Hollywood. Paramount, like much of the rest of the industry, has to deal with a declining linear TV business, debt, and a sub-scale, still not globally profitable streaming business. A recent study commissioned by the Concept Art Association and the Animation Guild, meanwhile, predicted that AI would impact more than 200,000 Hollywood jobs over the next three years.
Along with tech, Ellison said he plans to grow the streaming business by making more movies and shows. The company is open to joint ventures with other streamers.
Paramount Skydance execs also said linear TV was still a focus. They singled out Nickelodeon as one channel that’s an important way to keep families and kids, and would be a big priority for investment.
