Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison said artificial intelligence has the potential to be the biggest creative unlock in modern history, arguing the technology could reshape how his company produces content while insisting it will not replace artists. Ellison made the remarks in an interview published Tuesday, comparing AI's arrival to the early 1990s emergence of CGI and digital composites. He said that earlier technology enabled films such as Jurassic Park and Terminator 2, and he expects AI to have an even larger impact.
Ellison used the original Terminator as an illustration of how production costs have grown. He said the film cost $4 million to make, while reproducing it shot for shot today would run $60 to 70 million. AI tools, he suggested, could make budgets more manageable and thereby let studios take on more original storytelling with less financial risk.
The CEO said AI will significantly reshape Paramount Skydance's business. According to Ellison, the company has been developing its own AI tools, and he claims those tools will make content easier to produce, speed up projects across the organization and transform how the company works. He argued those changes increase rather than diminish the value of premium intellectual property and live events.
Ellison also addressed concerns about a flood of machine-generated content. He said that in a world of AI slop, there will always be a premium for truly hand-crafted storytelling. He repeated his position that artificial intelligence is a tool for artists and will never be a replacement for them.
The comments place Ellison among entertainment executives publicly framing AI as a production efficiency tool rather than a substitute for creative labor, a distinction that carries weight for Paramount Skydance's film and television operations. The company's internal tool development is the concrete piece of the strategy he described, with Ellison tying it to faster project turnaround and easier content production across the organization.
Ellison's comparison to CGI positions AI as the next major production technology shift for Hollywood, though his remarks focused on budgets and workflow rather than specific releases or timelines. He did not detail which tools Paramount Skydance is building or when they would be deployed.
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