DreamWorks co-founder: AI will not end creativity; the key lies in redefining the rules.

September 23: Musk today reposted an article by DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg. The article states that AI will not end the creative industry, but will significantly reduce the time and cost of film and television production, and further expand the boundaries of content creation. He believes that what truly needs to be discussed is not "whether to use AI," but how to establish industry rules for copyright, licensing, and compensation in the AI era.

Katzenberg recalled that in 2023 he predicted that a new generation of AI tools would reduce the production time and cost of world-class animation by up to 90% within three years. He said he understands Hollywood creators' concerns about AI, because creation is not only a production process, but also a long-term process of investment, expression, and emotion for artists.

Citing the phonograph, the arrival of sound in film, and computer animation as examples, he pointed out that technological progress does indeed eliminate some old jobs, but may also give rise to new art forms. In the 1980s, when he was in charge of Disney's animation department, he pushed for the joint development of the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) with Pixar, ultimately helping drive the transition from traditional hand-drawn animation to CGI. He believes that technology did not weaken creation, but expanded the artist's "canvas."

Katzenberg also emphasized that there is still a gap between current AI and creativity in the true sense. He believes that AI is good at reasoning, analysis, optimization, and pattern matching, while human creation depends on aesthetics, intuition, empathy, and personal expression. In the future, AI may bridge this gap, but there is currently no technical path in the industry that can clearly describe it.

Regarding the relationship between AI and Hollywood, Katzenberg believes that AI developers need to obtain from creators a kind of "creativity" that cannot be built or bought through technology alone. Therefore, the industry should involve artists in the design stage in the future and ensure that creators receive credit, licensing, and reasonable compensation. He also said that Hollywood also needs to accept that AI will not disappear, and shift from resisting technology to discussing specific rules for AI applications.

Katzenberg expects that as AI lowers production barriers and costs, more films and new forms of storytelling will be produced in the future, and creators will also gain more room to experiment and take risks. He concluded that Silicon Valley has new technological tools, Hollywood has creative capability, and the key to the future content industry lies in combining the two.