Ernie Anastos was one of the kindest, most generous people I have ever known. Like so many others, I am heartbroken by his loss. Continue Reading →
Media & Entertainment
Posts about Media & Entertainment.
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Almost every major marketing analytics platform shipped AI visibility features in 2025. What does not yet exist is a simple, unified measurement framework that connects AI visibility to revenue. The tools can tell you whether ChatGPT mentioned your brand. They cannot yet tell you what that mention was worth, how it compares to your paid search investment, or when you should reallocate budget. Here's how I'm thinking about it. Continue Reading →
Google DeepMind just launched Lyria 3 in the Gemini app. Type a text prompt (or upload a photo) and you will get a 30-second track with auto-generated lyrics, vocals, and custom cover art. The model is available in eight languages to anyone 18+. YouTube creators worldwide can also access it through Dream Track for Shorts soundtracks. Every track carries a SynthID watermark. Continue Reading →
ByteDance released Seedance 2.0 this week, and within hours Irish filmmaker Ruairi Robinson typed a two-line prompt and generated Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt on a rooftop. It went mega-viral. Riffs on Spider-Man, Titanic, Stranger Things, Lord of the Rings, and Shrek followed by the hundreds. The MPA denounced "massive" copyright infringement. Rhett Reese, who wrote the Deadpool films, posted: "It's likely over for us." Continue Reading →
CES 2026 officially opens Tuesday in Las Vegas with 4,500 exhibitors across 2.6 million square feet. I've attended for decades. Here's what has my attention. Continue Reading →
CES® 2026 opens in nine days, and for the thirteenth year, the Shelly Palmer Innovation Series Breakfast will bring together C-suite executives from the world's most influential media, marketing, and technology companies. Continue Reading →
Thanksgiving always kicks off the annual flood of promo emails, shipping alerts, loyalty offers, holiday coupons, and "exclusive VIP deals." This year, the volume feels higher and the quality feels sharper because AI tools now generate phishing emails that look exactly like what Amazon, Walmart, Wayfair, UPS, FedEx, or any major brand would send. The old visual tells are gone. The scams and their associated scam websites are practically indistinguishable from legitimate ones. Continue Reading →
The controversy over Tilly Norwood, the AI-generated "actor," has exposed something deeper than union postures and moral panic. It forces us to reexamine what acting is, what AI does, and why the usual arguments miss the point entirely. While reading this I'm going to ask you to keep an open mind. I know this will not be a popular interpretation of this issue, but musicians lived this experience during the transition from acoustic to electronic musical instruments, the advent of the digital synthesizer and again at the advent of sampling keyboards. Evolution is an amoral process. We must adapt. Let's explore. Continue Reading →
The debate over AI and its role in creative industries often centers on one question: Can AI ever be as creative as humans? While it’s tempting to philosophize about inspiration and ingenuity, this line of inquiry misses a crucial point: If the audience can’t tell the difference between AI-generated and human-generated content, or if they don’t care, for all practical purposes, there is no difference. Continue Reading →
OpenAI announced it's backing "Critterz," a feature-length animated film created largely with generative AI tools, targeting a debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2026. The project will complete production in nine months instead of the typical three years, with a budget under $30 million compared to the $100+ million typical for animated features. Continue Reading →