The Rundown - Deep Dive: Can Hollywood Survive the AI Content Boom?

Episode Date: June 21, 2025

AI-generated videos are getting shockingly good, and Hollywood is starting to panic. In this deep dive, we break down how Google’s new Veo 3 model is fueling a wave of hyper-realistic content on TikTok, YouTube, and beyond. From $2,000 AI-made commercials to lawsuits from Disney and Universal, studios are scrambling to protect their turf as creators armed with prompts begin to rival big-budget productions. We’ll explore what this means for the attention economy, the future of entertainment jobs, and why this may be the start of Hollywood’s biggest disruption yet.This video is for informational purposes only and reflects the views of the host and guest, not Public Holdings or its subsidiaries. Mentions of assets are not recommendations. Investing involves risk, including loss. Past performance does not guarantee future results. For full disclosures, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Public.com/disclosures⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Welcome back to the rundown for another weekend deep dive. Today, we are breaking down AI's impact on Hollywood. AI generated videos are starting to flood social media feeds, everything from a West Anderson-style fight scene to a skydiving gorilla doing a vlog. These videos are generating millions of views and hundreds of thousands of followers. It's all moving so fast, and it might just be the beginning of Hollywood's next existential crisis. So in today's episode, we're looking at how. generative AI videos could impact the future of Hollywood and what it means for companies like

Netflix, Disney, YouTube, and meta. We got a great one for you today. Let's dive in. Generative AI videos aren't new. They've been around for a couple years now, but up until recently, they've been pretty bad, all right? The fingers would be all janky, characters would glitch, there'd be weird physics. I mean, just look up the infamous Will Smith eating spaghetti video from a couple years ago to get an idea what I'm talking about. But these AI models keep getting better. And these days, AI videos are starting to get really good. And I think people will point to the release of Google's V-O-3 model as a pivotal moment for AI. I mean, this model is so good. It can generate photorealistic video with cinematic camera moves and even audio with realistic

sounding dialogue. It's way better than what we had before. This model has been out for less than a Now, Google released it during their Google I.O. conference back in May. And it hasn't taken long for AI generated videos to start going viral on social media. In fact, there are creators now on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube running accounts about fictional AI characters that don't exist in real life, but were made using V-O-3. They've already racked up millions of views and hundreds of thousands of followers. Just the other day, I saw a video of an AI-generated gorilla vlogging while skydiving. And then I saw another AI vlog of a Star Wars Stormtrooper going about his day. So we're now at a point that anyone with a laptop and a Gemini Ultra subscription can make

engaging, realistic AI content like a stormtrooper vlogging his day with some good prompts and a little bit of patience. And people are already using V-O-3 to create commercials too. This isn't just a viral TikTok trend. The prediction market website Kalshi, which became popular during the presidential election, aired a commercial on national TV during the NBA finals that was created entirely from AI. This commercial is filled with explosions and chaos and aliens drinking beer at a frat party. And according to the maker of this commercial, PJ Ace, it cost just $2,000 and took just three days to make. I mean, that is wild because just a couple years ago, if they tried to make that same commercial, it might have cost six or seven figures.

you've had to pay multiple actors and pay for CGI and multiple editors, but now one person was able to do that with V-O-3. So as you can see, I mean, the game has changed overnight, and it's only going to get better. Things are changing fast, and everyone from Hollywood to social media content creators, are trying to keep up. So how is Hollywood responding to the emergence of AI?

Well, right now, they're lawyering up, and they have a legitimate reason to do so. Disney and Universal recently sued Mid-Journey, one of the most popular AI image generators, accusing the company of helping users churn out copyright protected characters like Spider-Man and Darth Vader. I mean, IP is a huge part of Hollywood. These brands fueled theme parks, toy lines, fashion collabs,

and billions of dollars in annual revenue. So when people start using Mid Journey that cook up flawless images of Iron Man or Yoda, yeah, Disney's going to have a problem with that, and they're taking them to court. Universal is also joining the fight standing up for its own valuable, IP portfolio, including the minions and Jurassic Park. And this is shaping up to be a pretty interesting legal battle, because most lawsuits so far when it comes to AI were focused on text. Like the Dow Jones

company sued the AI search engine perplexity for allegedly scraping and republishing Wall Street Journal articles. But this lawsuit from Disney and Universal is about images, characters, and valuable IP. So now it's in the hands of the court system. And we'll see how it all plays out. But here's the irony in the whole thing. While the studios are throwing lawsuits around, they're barely investing in the very tech that they're fighting. According to Deloitte, less than 3% of Hollywood production budgets in 2025

will go towards generative AI tools. And I think it's partly because tools aren't quite ready to generate an entire two-hour film. I mean, even this AI model from Google V-O-3 can only make eight-second long videos. So we're still not at the point where you can type out a couple prompts and generate a full two-hour-long feature film.

But there is real fear within Hollywood that at some point these AI tools are going to get good enough to where they're going to start replacing writers and actors. In fact, the 2023 writers and actors strike was fueled in part by the fears over AI replacing jobs. One recent survey of entertainment executives projected that 204,000 Hollywood jobs could be adversely affected by AI by 2027.

And a third of executives believe that at least one in five industry jobs will be gone by 2026. So you could see why Hollywood is hesitant to embrace the technology. Now, there are some studios that are starting to dabble into AI. One of them being Lionsgate, they're working with a company called Runway AI to create custom models trained on their own film library. Another company is AMC Networks.

They just announced a deal with Runway as well, using AI tools for things like pre-visualization and market material. So I think there is a future where studios rely on AI to speed up production and cut costs. AI could end up helping Hollywood, but the fear is that these AI tools get so good, everyone is going to be replaced with just a few prompts. So you can see why the industry is hesitant

to embrace this technology. Because the last time we had a major technological revolution, Hollywood lost their influence and grip on culture. So let's talk about that. Hollywood was already struggling even before AI showed up. Fewer people are going to the movies these days and people are cutting the cord at record. Meanwhile, you have platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok continuing to capture more attention.

In fact, YouTube became the number one platform for TV viewership as of December of 2024, according to Nielsen. YouTube now accounts for more than 11% of total TV time, while the top streamer like Netflix accounts for just 8.5%. Audiences these days, especially the younger ones, are choosing creators over Hollywood. They'd rather watch someone on TikTok film a sketch or put on maybe. up with their iPhone then sit through a two hour long blockbuster with a bloated plot on a $200 million budget.

But the one thing that Hollywood had over content creators was high production quality. But now a solo creator in their bedroom can make a fantasy short film with dragons and sort fights that looks like a Netflix original using AI. So you might see Hollywood lose even more relevance and influence to AI content creators. On top of that, AI also allows for creators to churn out even even more content. You know, instead of spending all day filming just one video, AI can generate 10 or 100 videos in a day. And that's why platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok are pushing these AI tools. Because the more content that's created, that's more time that people are going to spend

watching that content and the more ad dollars these platforms can make. And that's where I'm starting to get a little worried about the whole thing. I'm someone that makes content on the internet for a And with the way AI is progressing, I might be replaced soon. In fact, in the near future, it's possible that most human influencers might be replaced by AI influencers. And maybe people will prefer it that way. But yeah, it's all about to get pretty weird. So what's the takeaway here?

Well, for one, things are changing fast. Google's V-O-3 came out just a month ago and it showed what's possible with AI when it comes to video creation. And it's already freaking out people from Hollywood to to content creators like myself. These tools are being used to create commercials and interesting historical vlogs and even short films. And I'm not sure where all of this is headed. There are definitely pros to AI videos,

but there are also noticeable downsides as well. Like it's possible that half the content that we see in our social media feeds is just gonna be AI slop. And then not to mention the concerns around misinformation with videos looking so lifelike, people might not know what's real from fake. No one's gonna trust any.

anything they see on the internet anymore, which probably should be the case anyways. So there are still a lot of questions and concerns around AI. We're still in the first couple of innings of this whole thing, and my hope is that these AI tools will lead to more creativity from everyone. I'm talking Hollywood to solo content creators. But there's also a reality where AI video is used to divide people and confuse people and spread misinformation and replace hundreds of thousands of jobs, even a podcast host like myself.

So we're living through some interesting times right now. But in the meantime, I'm going to go watch some more AI animal vlogs. Well, all right, guys, that's it for today's weekend, deep dive. If you like today's episode and want to support the show, hit us with a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcast. Can we record these deep dives with video so you can watch this episode on Spotify or YouTube? And you'll get confirmation that I am not AI generated, at least for now. By the way, if you have like eight extra seconds, consider leaving us a comment on Spotify or YouTube. or YouTube, and let us know what you thought about the episode,

and if you think that AI will be overall good or bad when it comes to content and social media. Thank you guys so much for listening. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the help behind the scenes. I'll see you guys back here on Monday.