Jeffrey Katzenberg Says Hollywood Must Decide the Rules for AI Instead of Fighting It

DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg says Hollywood needs to accept that artificial intelligence isn’t going away and concentrate on deciding how the technology should be used.

The former chairman of Walt Disney Studios set out his position in a lengthy essay published on September 23, comparing the arrival of generative AI with previous technological shifts that transformed filmmaking and animation. 

Katzenberg has spent decades working across Hollywood and Silicon Valley. He co-founded DreamWorks SKG after his time at Disney and was closely involved in an era when computer-generated animation moved from an emerging technology into mainstream entertainment.

Rather than trying to prevent AI from entering filmmaking, Katzenberg argues that creative industries should concentrate on establishing the conditions surrounding its use. Those questions include areas such as consent and compensation, particularly as AI tools become increasingly capable of generating video, performances and other creative material.

But he believes refusing to engage with AI could leave Hollywood unable to shape what happens next.

Katzenberg previously predicted that AI could eventually reduce the time and cost involved in producing high-quality animation by as much as 90%. That remains a prediction rather than an established industry-wide result, but rapidly improving AI video tools are making questions around production costs increasingly relevant. 

His intervention arrives as studios, independent filmmakers and online creators experiment with generative video while Hollywood unions establish increasingly detailed protections around performers and creative work.

For Katzenberg, the question is therefore becoming less about whether Hollywood uses AI and more about who decides the terms when it does.