Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison said artificial intelligence could transform filmmaking more profoundly than computer-generated imagery, presenting the technology as a way to expand creative possibilities and make production budgets more manageable. Speaking during the company’s latest earnings call, he also said artists would remain essential to storytelling as the tools develop.
Responding to a question about Paramount Skydance’s outlook for AI, Ellison described its potential as the “biggest creative unlock in modern history.” He compared the possibilities with the arrival of CGI and digital compositing in the early 1990s, pointing to Jurassic Park and Terminator 2 as examples of the stories those technologies helped make possible.
Ellison said he found it difficult to envision AI having a smaller impact than that earlier technological shift. His assessment linked the creative opportunities to the economics of making films: tools that reduce the financial burden of production could, in his view, allow more original stories to move forward.
To illustrate the budget pressures involved, Ellison cited Terminator, saying it cost $4 million to make. Recreating that film shot for shot now would cost between $60 million and $70 million, he said. He suggested AI could help make such budgets more manageable, giving the company greater room to take the financial risks associated with original storytelling.
Ellison also forecast substantial changes within Paramount Skydance itself, saying the company has been developing its own AI tools. He said those tools would simplify content production, accelerate projects throughout the organization and change how work is carried out. His comments described AI as a technology with consequences for both filmmaking and the company’s broader operations.
At the same time, Ellison argued that wider use of AI would increase the value of premium intellectual property and live events. He also said audiences would continue to place a premium on carefully crafted storytelling in an environment filled with what he called “AI slop.” That view accompanied his expectations for faster production and more accessible budgets.
Despite the scale of the changes he anticipated, Ellison maintained that AI should serve creative professionals. He described artificial intelligence as a tool for artists and said it “will never be a replacement for them,” pairing his enthusiasm for the technology with an emphasis on the continuing role of human creators.
