Michael Barbaro

a reporter covering Hollywood for The Times out in Los Angeles.

Hey, Brooks.

Hey there.

And Alyssa Wilkinson, one of our film critics, who is here with me in the studio in New York.

Alyssa, welcome.

Good to have you.

Thanks.

It's good to be here.

So I think we need to establish, Brooks, what we're talking about here.

I think most of us intuitively understand that TV and filmmaking have used elaborate computer-generated imagery for a very long time.

Right?

I mean, Avatar was a three-hour orgy of CGI.

So what's actually new here?

What are we actually talking about?

So this is not remotely tinkering.

This is whole cloth creation from the vast...

generative sea of AI.

So the distinction you guys are drawing here, and this is important, is we are used to seeing things that are created relying upon computers, but we're not really used to those creations being created by computers.

That's the classic.

Okay, so now that I think we can all agree that we are, in fact, awash in AI generative content in Hollywood, I want to back up for just a second and talk about how AI came to the world of film and television and has gained a foothold there.