DreamWorks co-founder Katzenberg likens AI to CGI revolution

• The dispute over AI was central to the 2023 writers strike, which ended with an agreement that included landmark rules on AI in projects.

Zoom out: Katzenberg, a co-founder of DreamWorks and one-time Disney executive whose work includes films like "Shrek," reflected on the "huge" resistance to making "Toy Story" with the then-novel CGI technology.

• The people most afraid were the ones who would be disrupted, he said.
• "Everything that you are hearing today are the issues that we had to deal with," he said.
• Katzenberg continued, "Yes, there was disruption, but animation's never, ever been bigger than it is today."

The bottom line: "AI isn't going to replace people, it's going to replace people that don't use AI," he said.

• "The exact same analogy there ... is that the talent that went and learned how to use the computer as a new pencil and a new paint brush ... they thrived," he said.
• Katzenberg added, "if change is uncomfortable, irrelevance is going to be a whole lot harder."

Go deeper: "Destroying a generation": Katzenberg raises alarm on teens and tech