Hollywood’s AI – A panel at Amazon MGM Studios Lot in Culver City weighed how Hollywood’s caution about AI is clashing with faster adoption abroad—raising fears that students and emerging creators in the U.S. could fall behind globally.
By the time the discussion started at this week’s AI on the Lot conference on the Amazon MGM Studios Lot in Culver City. Calif. the split was already clear: in Hollywood. artificial intelligence is still often treated like a dirty word. wrapped up in worries about jobs and creative futures. Across borders, it’s increasingly a tool—used, taught, and built into new forms of media.
The panel. moderated by MISRYOUM. brought together Richard Chuang. co-founder of Pacific Data Images (which later became Dreamworks); Stephan Vladimir Bugaj. an Emmy-winning creative who earlier this year joined Indian media giant JioStar as its senior VP of GenAI content and technology; Mrinalini Rao. head of research in international markets and growth at Google; and Christian Schussler. CEO of Norwegian AI studio Reimagine Studios.
Their central thread wasn’t just whether AI helps make content faster or cheaper. It was what happens to the next generation of creatives when one ecosystem embraces training and experimentation while another treats the technology as something to fear.
In the U.S., Chuang pointed to a moment that landed uncomfortably close to home: in one Northern California school, students signed a petition seeking a ban of AI. He connected that fear to misinformation and warned that it could leave young talent behind on the global stage.
“I blame a lot of educators for not educating them properly, because it turns out our educators are not as versed in AI as I can imagine they should be,” Chuang said. “That’s a big challenge for us in the U.S.”
He argued that the response can’t be avoidance. Chuang called for universities to start holding AI classes for professors—saying educators first need to understand “what are the limits, what are the guardrails and how to leverage it for their benefit rather than running away from it.”
The contrast kept stacking up as the panel moved around the world. In India. JioStar had already released a fully AI-generated show titled “Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh.” Rao also pointed to South Korea. where the government is putting together an AI textbook for students. Schussler. speaking from Norway. said the strength of the education system has allowed people there to take a more nuanced look at what the technology can do.
As the examples accumulated, one question began to hover over the room: if creators abroad are learning AI through the systems that shape them—schools, governments, studios—what happens when U.S. students are being organized to resist it?
The panel also leaned into the upside that tends to get overlooked when AI debates stay stuck on fear. The speakers said AI can reduce the time and cost of making content. creating room for creatives to target niche audiences that would be too expensive—or too unrealistic—under older production models.
Bugaj described the opportunity bluntly: “Making niche content affordable is super interesting. and I think there’s a lot of opportunity there.” He referenced sub fandoms. including furries who love Star Trek. saying that audiences like that wouldn’t fit a traditional $100 million feature film—but they do exist in numbers with devotion strong enough to pay for experiences tailored to them.
He also pointed to an example he said he saw last year: a feature film created by a man in Malaysia exploring LGBTQ+ and domestic violence issues. Bugaj said those topics would have gotten the filmmaker arrested if they’d been reviewed by local censors. but that the AI-generated film was released in international film festivals. “That was his way of being able to speak to this in his own language with people who look like his culture. with settings that look like his culture. ” Bugaj said. He added that there are entire cultures that “don’t necessarily get their material seen. ” and that some “can’t even make their material.”.
Rao offered a parallel case from Korea. She said one K-pop company is building an AI K-Pop star. and that Korean audiences aren’t rejecting the concept—they’re investing in it. “It’s not about broad reach. they’re bringing in the super fans. they’re leveraging them to co-create with them. ” Rao said. She noted that the AI can do personalized chats with fans to deepen engagement.
Even the technical debate was tied back to real-world culture, not just hype. Rao said relying on models built by U.S. companies can tilt the imagery toward Western-centric sources. and that the growing influence of Chinese models can create bias toward Chinese imagery. She flagged the specific challenge of generating videos featuring authentic Indians from particular regions.
To address that, Rao said India is building a national model fed with local data and imagery.
That idea—local models. local inputs. local ownership—also surfaced in the story of Nigerian artist Malik Afegbua. who rose to fame for his AI art. When MISRYOUM previously discussed his work, Afegbua had described an issue he encountered using tools like Midjourney. He said he was building an African LLM that incorporates data, imagery, and stories that are locally sourced.
Schussler brought it back to Norway with a practical detail about infrastructure: whenever something is published in Norway. he said it enters the national library. He added that he is working with the government to tap into that vault of Norwegian culture dating back hundreds of years to train his models.
“It will really help safeguard the culture in a world where everything’s sort of generalizing and washing out,” Schussler said.
The panel didn’t hand the audience a single policy prescription. But it did draw a sharp line between caution and competence—between refusing AI long enough for students to sign petitions against it, and investing in education and local capacity so creators can learn the tools they’re being offered.
If AI keeps moving from experiment to expectation, the stakes for the U.S. may not be theoretical. They’re already in classrooms—and in who gets prepared to compete when the rest of the world treats AI as part of how media is made.
AI on the Lot Amazon MGM Studios Lot Culver City Hollywood artificial intelligence Dreamworks Pacific Data Images Richard Chuang Stephan Vladimir Bugaj JioStar Mrinalini Rao Google Christian Schussler Reimagine Studios Malik Afegbua Midjourney AI-generated show Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh AI K-Pop star niche content