Paramount CEO says AI is the biggest creative unlock in history
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison believes that artificial intelligence will have an even bigger impact on filmmaking than CGI did in the 1990s. He argues that these tools can reduce production costs, making it easier to take creative risks, though he stresses that AI is meant to help artists rather than replace them.

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Production Impact
During a recent earnings call, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison compared the advent of AI in filmmaking to the introduction of CGI in the 1990s. He noted that while a film like Terminator cost around four million dollars to make back then, shooting it today would cost up to seventy million dollars. By leveraging internal AI tools, the company hopes to make production budgets much more manageable and encourage more original storytelling.
Business Transformation
Ellison stated that AI will reshape the company by speeding up projects and making content production much easier. However, he also emphasized that in a world flooded with automated content, truly hand-crafted storytelling will become even more valuable, and AI will remain a tool rather than a replacement for human artists.
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