The fatuous rage towards every flavor of the week that riles up people on the internet to the point of Rumpelstiltskin-style hopping and shrieking certainly isn’t limited to the internet’s anti-AI crowd, but at the time of this article’s writing, we are certainly seeing that they are capable of taking it to the next level. It has not been a good week for them.
On the legal battlefield, the existential threat they imagined was coming for AI from the Getty Images v. Stability AI lawsuit never materialized; the court dismissed the central copyright claim that the AI model itself was an infringing copy, securing a critical legal shield for the entire technology’s foundation. Simultaneously, the fight to prove AI users lack creativity is also losing ground, with even giants like Coca-Cola releasing behind-the-scenes footage of their holiday campaign, showcasing how their artists are combining traditional direction and skill with AI assistance to create their final product, a new form of “hybrid” animation that caused brains to break so badly that they took to social media to claim that the footage has itself been AI generated. Weirdly, I don’t see how that would be a win for them if AI can be that good without human guidance. Their blind rage really does keep them from thinking these things through.
But thinking and spurging cannot exist simultaneously in the same mind, as their other reaction was what it always is, to find new and absurd ways to spin-doctor, goalpost move, and double down in an exponentially ludicrous quest to avoid accountability for their part in what they have now switched to wishing on AI. You have seen it repeated in their NPC/Star Trek Borg patterning. “Can’t wait for the AI bubble to burst so you dorks can go on to the next grift.” was my favorite. The market bubble they contributed to collapsing through their quest to socially engineer and re-imagine the entertainment industry into a new and “modern” market that never existed is the very definition of a “bubble” in economic terms. In doing so they chased away the market they did have in favor of something that was artificially created, subsidized through increasingly devalued money and tax breaks, demanded more shares and leadership roles in their fantasy land, and then looked for a pariah to blame for the results of their own hubris when it all evaporated.
I’ve said before that in this one way, AI was a gift for them.
The current blame game is a smoke screen. In Hollywood and Big Tech, the layoffs and the economic strain are being blamed on AI infusion, yet the real cause is a painful market correction designed to eliminate the corporate bloat accumulated during years of reckless spending and artificially cheap money.
Hollywood, in particular, suffered a collapse of its own streaming bubble. It committed to unsustainable budgets, green-lit endless projects with thin creative foundations, and overhired during the peak of the streaming wars. Now, rather than admitting to colossal financial mismanagement, those who cut their own nose off to spite their faces are pointing at AI and claiming the robot is at fault. It is a spectacular act of self-delusion and deflection, but executives are in no hurry to change their minds. For them, it’s a great excuse to cut loose the dead weight that’s been perpetually dragging them down.
However, now that these companies are in the process of eliminating that weight, they are using AI to try and fill those vacant roles cheaply, a practice that will lead to a further drop in quality in some ways (but maybe not others. Who knows when you’re talking about modern Hollywood producers and writers?) and an over-correction in efficiency.
This over-correction will not last. Once executives realize that relying solely on unguided generative solutions cannot replace a competent human being, they will begin the next phase: hiring back a smaller, highly talented, and highly productive workforce. These will be the competent professionals who can use AI in their workflow to maximize their output, effectively doing the work of two or three pre-correction employees. This will be the ultimate victory for competence and skill.
The true “AI Bubble” that they are wishing for (and granted, is on its way to collapsing as well) is entirely contained within the world of speculation and venture capital. To be clear, by definition, a bubble is the massive overvaluation of companies built on the promise of future exponential growth, not current stable profitability. It is a temporary spike detached from the proven utility of the technology.
When this bubble eventually bursts, it is the speculative valuation that collapses, not the functional, underlying technology. A market bust means the stock price of an overpriced company aligns with reality; it does not mean the code stops working.
Sorry, AI-derangement syndrome sufferers. This does not mean AI will go away.
The anti-AI crowd’s hope that this market event will eliminate AI as a tool or an industry is not only economically ignorant to the point of being laughable, but it is strategically insane. It is a failure to understand the difference between Wall Street hype and Main Street utility. The AI models will still work. The open-source community, which is immune to corporate stock swings, will continue to innovate.
The market correction is a gift, providing the opportunity to acquire the necessary resources (talent, computing time) at a more reasonable cost. For studios that want to bring their costs down to reclaim sensible profit margins and the independent filmmaker, this is the chance to close the gap on institutional production value. Not that there will not be corporations vying to monopolize that value, but I have already talked about that in other articles at great length.
The anti-AI crowd is choosing to wait in an unstable market while their more pragmatic competitors seize the tools. This strategy, along with their emotional incontinence, is going to keep them unemployed for a long time. The only way out of this, and to creative freedom, is through.
The final, protected masterpiece will not be the one written by an algorithm, but the one directed by a vision, edited by a human hand, and stamped with the unmistakable signature of a true author. Understanding this will allow the creator to decide how much or little of it to use, which is important because there is such a thing as the right tool for the right job. The correction will not be a failure; it will be the market finally aligning to serve the most creative and resilient people in the industry, as well as the audiences we seek to serve.
Christopher Moonlight is an animator, special effects artist, and the director of the Award This winning movie, The Quantum Terror. His upcoming animated sci-fi adventure, Escape From Planet Omega-12, combines traditional film-making special effects with AI to create something never seen before in independent film. You can follow the behind-the-scenes, including tutorials, tips, and tricks, on his YouTube Channel and Substack.
