John Attanasio is the CEO of Toonstar.
I can’t recall the exact moment. It might have been during an AI event that I attended last summer where a top union exec proclaimed that she “prefers candles to electricity” in front of a cheering crowd…or it might have been last fall, post-writer’s strike resolution, when I warned that the challenges for Hollywood were not over and someone on X (formerly Twitter) thoughtfully responded with “Die AI Scum.'' Or perhaps it was last month when the audience at a SXSW panel with OpenAI loudly and frequently booed speakers who professed any benefit of AI. But I do know that at some point during that sequence of events, I realized the backlash to talk of AI in Hollywood was no ordinary fear of a new technology. And in this case, it’s a fear that will only prolong the troubles plaguing Hollywood if it persists.
