philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

As AI changes how movies are made, Hollywood crews ask: What’s left for us?

• AI is reshaping roles across Hollywood, from makeup and editing to storyboarding and production design, raising urgent questions about authorship, labor and creative control.
• The fast-paced changes come as below-the-line workers grapple with production slowdowns and shrinking crews.
• AI may offer an avenue for new players with low budgets, but it may also threaten workers who’ve spent years honing their crafts. 
• From Oscar-winning directors, production designers and makeup artists to grips, storyboard artists and editors, behind-the-scenes players share their fears, frustrations and hopes.

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Tung, whose credits include “Twisters” and Christopher Nolan’s upcoming adaptation of “The Odyssey,” has spent the last two years tracking the rise of generative tools, not just their capabilities but their implications. As co-chair of the Animation Guild’s AI Committee, he has been on the front lines of conversations about how these technologies could reshape creative labor.

To artists like Tung, the rise of generative tools feels deeply personal. “If you are an illustrator or a writer or whatever, you had to give up other things to take time to develop those skills,” he says. “Nobody comes out of the womb being able to draw or write or act. Anybody who does that professionally spent years honing those skills.”

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Earlier this year, he submitted “LATE” to what was billed as the world’s first AI animation contest, hosted by Curious Refuge, an online education hub for creative technologists — and, to his delight, he won. The prize included $10,000, a pitch meeting with production company Promise Studios and, as an absurd bonus, his face printed on a potato. But for Watmough, the real reward was the sense that he had found a new creative identity.

“There’s something to the fact that the winner of the first AI animation competition was an editor,” Watmough says. “With the advent of AI, yes, you could call yourself a filmmaker but essentially I’d say most people are editors. You’re curating, selecting, picking what you like — relying on your taste.”

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See the full story here: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2025-07-31/what-happens-to-film-production-crews-as-ai-expands-hollywood-tomorrow

Jason Schwartzman, Luca Guadagnino spotted filming OpenAI movie in S.F. park

“Artificial,” the forthcoming film about San Francisco company OpenAI, has been filming around the city this week, and fans have been running into the production crew all over town. 

The $40 million project follows CEO Sam Altman’s firing and rehiring at the artificial intelligence company in 2023. The drama is helmed by “Challengers” director Luca Guadagnino and stars Andrew Garfield (“The Social Network”) as Altman, Mill Valley-raised Monica Barbaro (“A Complete Unknown”) as former Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati and Ike Barinholtz (“The Studio”) as tech billionaire Elon Musk.   ...

See the full story here: https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/article/artificial-openai-filming-dolores-park-20796239.php

Meta’s mixed reality glasses make my Meta Quest 3 look like a boulder

• Meta and Stanford University researchers have developed new MR glasses
• These specs use holography to produce high-quality images
• Support rumors that Meta's headsets may turn into slim goggles

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That’s because Meta’s Reality Labs, alongside Stanford University, published a paper in Nature Photonics showcasing a prototype that uses holography and AI to create a super-slim mixed reality headset design.

The optical stack is just 3mm thick, and unlike other mixed reality headsets we’re used to – like the Meta Quest 3 – this design doesn’t layer stereoscopic images to create a sense of depth. Instead, it produces holograms that should look more realistic and be more natural to view. ...

Even with this technology still likely years (perhaps even a decade) from making it to a gadget you or I could go out and buy, the prototype’s design does showcase Meta’s desire to produce ultra-thin MR tech. ...

See the full story here: https://www.techradar.com/computing/virtual-reality-augmented-reality/metas-mixed-reality-glasses-make-my-meta-quest-3-look-like-a-boulder

Bunnies, Truthiness, and the AI Slop Era

...AI doesn’t need to be right. It just needs to be fast, cheap, and generally believable....

See the full story here: https://shellypalmer.com/2025/07/bunnies-truthiness-and-the-ai-slop-era/

Daniel Kwan Has a Plan to Tackle AI’s Hollywood Takeover and It Requires “Unprecedented” Action

Daniel Kwan, one half of the Oscar-winning filmmaking duo behind Everything Everywhere All at Once, joined technology futurist Jaron Lanier for a rich discussion presented by Berggruen Institute’s Studio B in West Hollywood on Friday evening. The hourlong conversation centered on a single question — Can human storytelling survive the algorithm? — and the dialogue helped surface many of the hot-button issues facing Hollywood (and humanity) amid the rise (and threat) of artificial intelligence technology. ...

We cannot allow the tech industry to set the terms for our industries.” ...

Instead, Kwan argued that Hollywood as a whole should help set the terms of adoption. To accomplish that will require “unprecedented” action by having every facet of the industry join hands — from studios and agencies to unions and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences — and form a unified front to combat the takeover. Now is the time “to put your hands on the steering wheel, because if you don’t, they will,” he said. ...

“We’re putting a line in the ground against another industry that is an invasive species. We have to basically say, ‘Look, if you want us to adopt your technology into our pipelines, you’re going to have to meet us on our terms, and that means you’re going to have to help us upgrade our institutions.’” ...

Then Kwan turned his attention toward something he said was his most important point: “What are we going to do about deepfakes and misinformation and the stuff that you are polluting our consensus truth with?” ...

“I always say it’s like I’m a tourist in Vanuatu,” Lanier quipped of his trip to Hollywood. “I know it’s about to be underwater, but I just want to enjoy it.” ...

...Kwan offered final (profound) words to close the conversation.

“To learn about [AI] is to basically have to say goodbye to the future you thought was going to happen. And that requires a mourning process. I just want to acknowledge that for some of you this is normal and fine, you’ve heard all this stuff and it’s not a big deal. But for others, this is really hard stuff to handle,” Kwan said. “The fact that Hollywood might not happen [to] exist anymore, the fact that all these institutions might be replaced by something else, we’re saying goodbye to the future, and there’s a little bit of grief in that. Who knows if it’s going to be good? Who knows if it’s going to be bad? But it is fundamentally going to change. Give yourself the space.”

See the full story here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/hollywood-ai-battle-filmmaker-daniel-kwan-action-plan-1236330720/

Insta360 Says Antigravity Drone Will Shoot 8K Surround Video

Camera firm Insta360 has announced a new drone brand called Antigravity capable of recording 360-degree video — a drone first. Shenzhen-based Insta360 made its name with the 360-degree X camera series, the latest of which, the X5, shoots 8K video and 18-megapixel photos. The Antigravity consumer drone will also record video in 8K and will be aimed at beginners who haven’t quite mastered their flight reflexes and want to capture everything and edit it later. “Ease of use is the starting point for all Antigravity products,” according to Insta360. The first Antigravity product is scheduled to be publicly unveiled in August.

While details at this point are sparse, Insta360 is “working on a sub-249g drone with 360-degree camera technology — something so obviously desirable that it’s a wonder it hasn’t been done yet. But this will be a first,” reports Digital Camera World.

In the U.S., drones that weigh less than 250 grams, or .55 pounds, do not need to be registered for recreational use (though operators are still required to follow FAA safety rules). The light weight also means “it should be easy to operate,” Digital Camera World suggests.

See the full story here: https://www.etcentric.org/insta360-says-antigravity-drone-will-shoot-8k-surround-video/

What you may have missed about Trump’s AI Action Plan

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But if you dig deeper, certain parts of the plan that didn’t pop up in any headlines reveal more about where the administration’s AI plans are headed. Here are three of the most important issues to watch. 

Trump is escalating his fight with the Federal Trade Commission

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The White House is very optimistic about AI for science

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The White House’s messaging on deepfakes is confused

Compared with President Biden’s executive orders on AI, the new action plan is mostly devoid of anything related to making AI safer. 

However, there’s a notable exception: a section in the plan that takes on the harms posed by deepfakes.

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See the full story here; https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/29/1120760/what-you-may-have-missed-about-trumps-ai-action-plan/

Netflix is now using generative AI – but it risks leaving viewers and creatives behind

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The industry faces an acceleration problem – AI advancement outpaces contract negotiations and psychological adaptation. AI is reshaping industry demands, yet 96% of VFX artists report receiving no AI training, with 31% citing this as a barrier to incorporating AI in their work.

Netflix’s AI integration shows that Hollywood is grappling with fundamental questions about creativity, authenticity and human value in entertainment. Without comprehensive AI regulation and retraining programs, the industry risks a future where technological capability advances faster than legal frameworks, worker adaptation and public acceptance can accommodate.

As audiences begin recognising AI’s invisible hand in their entertainment, the industry must navigate not just economic disruption, but the cognitive biases that shape how we perceive and value creative work.

See the full story here: https://theconversation.com/netflix-is-now-using-generative-ai-but-it-risks-leaving-viewers-and-creatives-behind-261699

Meta Exec Joins BBC News For Key Artificial Intelligence Role

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The move comes with traditional news orgs like the BBC thinking harder about their use of artificial intelligence.

Kapoor will “ruthlessly focus [her] time to drive audience growth both on and off-platform, accelerate AI adoption and make [the BBC] a more data-led organisation.”

She joins a few months after the BBC established new editorial policy guidance for generative AI content and a few days after BBC Studios opened an AI experimentation lab.

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See the full story here: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/meta-exec-joins-bbc-news-101545999.html

Creating realistic deepfakes is getting easier than ever. Fighting back may take even more AI

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The best tool for catching AI may be another AI program, one trained to sniff out the tiny flaws in deepfakes that would go unnoticed by a person.

Systems like Pindrop’s analyze millions of datapoints in any person’s speech to quickly identify irregularities. The system can be used during job interviews or other video conferences to detect if the person is using voice cloning software, for instance.

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See the full story here: https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-deepfake-trump-espionage-hack-scammers-da90ad1e5298a9ce50c997458d6aa610