At the 2025 Digital Hollywood Conference during CES, AI Steals the Limelight
At the Digital Hollywood sessions in 2025, ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, technology and entertainment leaders addressed current trends in generative AI in film production. Longtime visual effects producer and CCO of Metaphysic, Ed Ulbrich, pointed out that while movies have utilized a version of AI since de-aging Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), the evolving capabilities of modern tools can be both promising and threatening to the creative industry.
Jason Zada, founder of Secret Level, showed off several short films created using AI-powered text-to-video tools. The technology, while still imperfect, demonstrated impressive capabilities in streamlining expensive and time-consuming production work. Rachael Appleton of Autodesk, maker of Maya and 3D Studio software, highlighted a tool from Wonder Dynamics, a recent acquisition, that brought real-world video footage into a computer-generated 3D environment in real-time, offering significant benefits to animators and filmmakers.
Many panelists emphasized that AI was simply another tool in the production tech toolkit, noting that it required adjustment but ultimately would prove beneficial. Tech expert Samira Panah Bakhtiar from Amazon Web Services highlighted some practical uses of AI to catalog and restore archival footage, as well as enhance live sports broadcasts and enable personalization for viewers.
There were also concerns about the ethical use of AI, with Ulbrich stressing the importance of products built using ethically sourced data. AI was heralded as "democratizing" creativity, with educational institutions urged to focus on teaching storytelling fundamentals instead of technical knowledge.
The economic drivers behind the generative AI tech surge seemed well-aligned with the industry's priorities, despite lingering concerns from creators and philosophical questions about the nature of creativity.
Insight: Generative AI significantly impacts filmmaking by providing tools for autonomous content creation, visual effects, and post-production. However, it also poses concerns about job losses and ethical considerations, with unions pushing for protective contractual clauses and the entertainment industry navigating the changes to balance technological advancements with preserving human artistic roles.
Ed Ulbrich, from Autodesk's acquisition, Wonder Dynamics, believes that the advancements in AI can be both promising and threatening for the film industry during the CES 2025, as demonstrated by Jason Zada's AI-powered text-to-video tools from Secret Level. Amazon Web Services expert Samira Panah Bakhtiar further emphasizes the practical uses of AI in cataloging and restoring archival footage, as well as enhancing live sports broadcasts and enabling personalization for viewers.
