Hollywood cozied up to AI in 2025 and had nothing good to show for it (www.theverge.com)

In 2025, Hollywood significantly expanded its engagement with generative AI technologies, utilizing tools for post-production tasks and exploring new AI-driven content creation. While the industry traditionally leveraged AI for enhancing visual effects, this year marked a deeper integration focused on generating content, often leading to disappointing outcomes. Many studios, including Disney and Netflix, began partnerships with AI companies, despite previous legal challenges over copyright concerns, signaling a new era of collaboration that has yet to yield any groundbreaking projects. The significance of these developments lies in the adoption of AI as a cost-saving measure in content production, overshadowing quality and creativity. For instance, Disney's billion-dollar licensing deal with OpenAI aims to utilize AI-generated video content featuring popular franchise characters, yet early productions have failed to impress audiences. Additionally, Amazon's poorly received AI dubbing efforts highlight the technology's limitations. As studios look to move forward with AI, the focus appears more on financial efficiency than artistic merit, raising concerns within the AI/ML community about the broader implications of such a "slop era" in content creation.