Media dealmakers chat AI as a business accelerator
The Media Deals "Expert Voices" ahead of the Axios BFD event in San Francisco. Photo: Robert Suarez/Axios
Improvements in artificial intelligence and increased attention to the technology can accelerate growth for media companies and empower individual creators while also disrupting their current practices.
Driving the news: That positive view of AI was shared by many media executives attending the "Expert Voices" luncheon for media-focused dealmakers held before Axios BFD in San Francisco on Wednesday.
Details: Media dealmakers nodded in agreement to a discussion point from Lightspeed Venture Partners' Moritz Baier-Lentz about AI being as impactful as the emergence of the internet and as smartphones.
- "The thing you don't want to miss as a venture capitalist firm is a platform shift," said Baier-Lentz, the firm's head of gaming. "What was exciting about the internet [and] ... the smartphone is it opened up completely new ways of consumer experiences."
- "I'm particularly interested in the impact on user-generated content," said Frank Gibeau, president of Zynga. "Less than 1% of people in networks create actually most of the content that people consume. These tools will dramatically change that percentage."
Zoom in: AI tools have helped media companies, such as animation studio Invisible Universe, increase their content production.
- "We're using AI across [our teams], but we haven't let go of any people," said Invisible Universe CEO Tricia Biggio. "It allows people to understand that they are going to innovate themselves into a job, not out of a job. ... I'm going to take down production costs, not reduce human capital."
- "AI can be a shortcut to solving a lot of the problems that we haven't been able to build against because we just don't have the right level of staff," said Todd Hooper, venture partner of Acequia Capital.
- "As an engineer, even in my earlier days, I would write all the comments in the code saying what I was going to do and then go back and code it," said Adam Goldband, vice president of engineering at Fandom. "Well, now it's filling that in for me, but I still had to tell it."
Of note: Funding to metaverse startups has dramatically dropped whereas generative AI startups have surged, per Pitchbook data. But while the statistics are at odds with each other, the fields could help each other.
- "We think AI can help accelerate us getting the right experience for the right user at the right time," said Jason Hahn, executive vice president and head of corporate and business development at Playstudios.
The other side: Dealmakers working in music expressed concerns with copyright issues.
- While the AI track simulating Drake and The Weeknd was a "banger," it's important to note that the artists were not involved, said James Carlos McFall, co-founder of Lockerverse.
- "Authentication, as it relates to generative AI, matters to a fan — if their favorite artist is actually behind the piece of work being created," said Michael Blank, head of consumer investments of CAA.
The bottom line: AI is not a friend or foe — it's both.
- "These are tools that are going to accelerate this next chapter of innovation," said Katelin Holloway, founding partner of Seven Seven Six.
