Former DreamWorks CEO Thinks AI Could Cut 90% of Animation Jobs

The story of the year is artificial intelligence, which has exploded and is being used all over Hollywood. We had an entire summer of strikes that had to happen to protect jobs, and, now, it looks as if they'll just be at the beginning.

Now, former DreamWorks Animation CEO and Hollywood mogul Jeffery Katzenberg says AI will shake up the animation industry.

Katzenberg spoke at at a Bloomberg New Economy Forum panel in Singapore, where he elaborated on AI's position in the animation field and what would happen to the jobs of animators.

You can watch the clip below.

Jeff Katzenberg Says AI Will Cut Cost of Animated Films by 90%www.youtube.com

In the video, Katzenberg said, “In the good old days, when I made an animated movie, it took 500 artists five years to make a world-class animated movie.” He continued, "I think it won’t take 10% of that. Literally, I don’t think it will take 10% of that three years from now.”

If this sounds dire, it feels like it. Katzenberg thinks this is a natural progression. He said, “We went from a pen to a paintbrush, a printing press, a still camera, a movie camera. These are things that expanded creativity and all sorts of storytelling in extraordinary ways."

Katzenberg continued: "I think of AI as a creative tool … a new paintbrush or a new camera that has so much opportunity around it.”

While this is a nice way to frame it, there are tens of thousands of people working in animation who will be affected if anyone can "weild the brush." Especially if studios are not willing to pay people to do certain things.

Another big question is where the new ideas and stories will come from if AI is behind everything. Katzenberg explained, “I think that is still gonna come from creativity. Of individual creativity … You can have access to all of this knowledge; it’s your ability to prompt it that actually produces a result. So prompting is, in fact, going to be a creative commodity across many different aspects of storytelling.”

The world is moving incredibly fast. These sound bites are nice to hear, but also bring in a lot more questions about what the future looks like and how anyone will be able to break into the industry,.

Let me know what you think in the comments.