Magazine, Making Money, TechFirst with John Koetsier
AI is hitting entertainment like a sledgehammer … from algorithmic gatekeepers and AI-written scripts to digital actors and entire movies generated from a prompt.
In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier sits down with Larry Namer, founder of E! Entertainment Television and chairman of the World Film Institute, to unpack what AI really means for Hollywood, creators, and the global media economy.
Larry explains why AI is best understood as a productivity amplifier rather than a creativity killer, collapsing months of work into hours while freeing creators to focus on what only humans can do. He shares how AI is lowering barriers to entry, enabling underserved niches, and accelerating new formats like vertical drama, interactive storytelling, and global-first content.
The conversation also dives into:
- Why AI-generated actors still lack true human empathy
- How studios and IP owners will be forced to license their content to AI companies
- The future of deepfakes, guardrails, and regulation
- Why market fragmentation isn’t a threat — it’s an opportunity
- How China, Korea, and global platforms are shaping what comes next • Why writers and storytellers may be entering their best era yet
Transcript: generative Hollywood … AI and entertainment with Larry Namer
Note: this is a partially AI-generated transcript. It may not be 100% correct. Check the video for exact quotations.
Larry Namer:
These AI twins—I kind of liken them to psychopaths. They’re born without emotion. They’re born without empathy. They’re born without feelings to react.
John Koetsier:
Are the machines in charge of culture now? Hello and welcome to Tech First. My name is John Koetsier. AI is hitting entertainment like a sledgehammer—whether it’s algorithmic gatekeepers deciding what content you’ll see from billions of creators, digital actors, AI-written scripts, or movies that someday you might just prompt into existence.
Studios are scrambling to adapt and to buy each other to build the biggest moats. What’s that future going to look like? We have the founder of E! Entertainment Television, the first global 24-hour entertainment news network. He’s also the creator of the Metan Global Entertainment Group, chairman of the World Film Institute, and a lifelong builder of global media ecosystems.
His name is Larry Namer. Welcome, Larry. How are you doing?
Larry Namer:
Hi. Good. All good. Thanks for having me here.
John Koetsier:
So much is happening. I wanted to say, you know, what’s happening in entertainment today, but honestly, it’s more about what’s not happening. It’s a crazy world. You just mentioned Disney’s licensing with Sora. We’re talking about Warner Brothers, Paramount, Netflix—the world’s crazy.
Larry Namer:
Yeah, it is. But it’s fun. It’s exciting times. It’s fun to try and figure out. I’ve always had this thing: if it was easy, the big guys would be doing everything, and there’d be no room for folks like me.
John Koetsier:
Well, I guess the big question is AI. Is it the future of everything happening in entertainment?
Larry Namer:
AI is a big part of it. I’ve been around long enough to see so many doomsdays. Cable was going to replace regular television. Pay TV was going to replace movie theaters. On and on.
AI is part of the mix. I try to explain it this way: if you go way back, when I had to write a script, I used a typewriter and a little bottle of White-Out. It used to take me about three months to get a script to the point where someone could actually read it. Then laptops and word processing came along, and what used to take three months now took five days.
Now with AI, people ask me, “Larry, can you do an analysis of starting a TV service based on whatever the subject is?” It used to take me five days to do the research, build a PowerPoint, and do rough budgeting. Now it takes me about 30 seconds.
After that, I still spend two or three hours putting the human element into it. So in three hours, I’m getting done what used to take five days, and what used to take three months. As long as there’s a system in place where I can still get paid the same amount for that work, how could I not love it?
I get more time. I can do more projects and make more money. I can spend more time with my grandbaby. I can learn to speak Spanish. You reclaim the most valuable thing we have as human beings, which is time on this planet.
Now, I do think guardrails need to be put in place. Right now, regulators have their heads in the sand. They say, “We don’t understand this, so if we ignore it, it’ll go away.” It’s not going away.
There need to be deterrents so bad people know there are consequences for bad actions. We don’t really have that yet. Some states are beginning to take it seriously. California is probably a little ahead of the rest of the country.
But as a storyteller, AI is a great tool. It takes down the cost of entry. It puts tools in the hands of creative people anywhere on the planet. Long term, prices will come down, and we’ll see more people creating more content—especially niche content for audiences not currently being served because the costs were too high.
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This article was first published on TechFirst with John Koetsier.
Watch and read the full interview here
