Hollywood's Divided AI Future: Between Resistance and Quiet Adoption

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Hollywood’s relationship with artificial intelligence is fractured along clear ideological lines, according to Matt Belloni, a founding partner at Puck and long-time entertainment industry reporter. Some screenwriters, directors, and actors publicly reject AI entirely, while others—including prominent showrunners—are already integrating generative AI into creative processes like joke generation and scenario development. Belloni distinguishes between “corporate AI” (process automation, search tools) which is nearly universal across studios, and generative AI for creative work, which remains contested and largely undisclosed.

Corporate AI vs. Generative AI: The Distinction Belloni Draws

According to Belloni, conflating all AI adoption obscures a critical split in how Hollywood is actually using the technology. Corporate AI—tools that streamline administrative work, improve search functionality, and optimize logistics—has achieved near-universal adoption across the industry without controversy. “Obviously, on the second one, everyone is using it,” Belloni told Wired interviewer Katie Drummond.

Generative AI for content creation, by contrast, remains contentious and often covert. Belloni recounted an anecdote about a prominent showrunner who used ChatGPT in the writer’s room to generate joke suggestions and scenario ideas, encouraging her writing team to adopt the tool despite public industry opposition to generative AI. This private adoption, Belloni suggests, is more widespread than public statements suggest—a gap between stated principles and actual practice that defines Hollywood’s current AI moment.

The Public-Private Divide on AI in Entertainment

The industry’s stance on AI cannot be read from headlines alone. Some of Hollywood’s most vocal figures—screenwriters, directors, and actors—have vowed never to use generative AI or work with those who do. This opposition was central to recent labor negotiations, with the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild securing contractual protections around AI-generated content and likeness rights.

Yet Belloni’s reporting suggests that behind closed doors, adoption is accelerating. The gap between public rejection and private integration reflects deeper tensions: cost pressures on studios, creative curiosity among individual creators, and Big Tech’s expanding footprint in entertainment financing and production.

Big Tech’s Expanding Control Over Entertainment

Wired’s interview with Belloni surfaced a broader concern: the entertainment industry is increasingly beholden to technology companies. The example of Ben Affleck selling an AI startup to Netflix for $587 million, Drummond noted, underscores how Silicon Valley capital is reshaping Hollywood’s power structure. Belloni, a former lawyer, emphasizes that unresolved debates over copyright, intellectual property, and celebrity likeness rights are now “highly consequential”—and Big Tech companies hold significant leverage in their outcome.

Why This Matters

For screenwriters, actors, and production crews, the gap between Hollywood’s public AI stance and private adoption creates immediate career and contractual risks. Writers negotiating guild protections against generative AI need clarity on which showrunners are already using the tools—information currently hidden from public view. For studios weighing AI investment, Belloni’s reporting suggests that early adopters (whether in process automation or creative work) are gaining cost and speed advantages, putting pressure on competitors to follow.

For policymakers and copyright advocates, the fragmentation reveals why blanket regulations may miss the mark: generative AI is not evenly adopted, and corporate AI adoption is effectively invisible to public debate. The unresolved questions around copyright liability, training data rights, and likeness protection will likely determine whether Hollywood’s private AI adoption accelerates or reverses in the next two years.