FEARLESS MEDIA: The Future Of Entertainment, Media & Tech

This episode is a discussion of Peter Csathy's latest article in his "the brAIn" newsletter, which focuses on Hollywood’s long-standing compensation model for individual Creatives on film, television, and video projects. Each of those projects (like Christopher Nolan’s smash The Odyssey) is in its own way a startup venture. 

Csathy's virtual co-hosts (generated by his article and prompts using Google NotebookLM) discuss whether generative AI’s rapid adoption in the entertainment business — led by AI studios and agencies — can rewrite Hollywood’s compensation model for Creatives. What if AI-transformed Hollywood borrows Silicon Valley’s startup playbook to give Creatives an actual slice of the economic pie for each individual project (like The Odyssey) in exchange for lower fixed compensation? 

In such a re-imagined system, Hollywood Creatives aren’t just work-for-hire employees anymore. They’re actual stakeholders — invested in the overall success of the creative enterprise. In a sense, they're now on the film’s “cap table” (just like a tech startup employees’s equity stake shows up on the startup’s cap table).

Reach out to host Peter Csathy at [email protected], and check out Peter's entertainment, media, AI and tech-focused business advisory and legal services firm Creative Media. You can also sign up for his free generative AI-focused newsletter "the brAIn" on Substack (via this link) -- all about how generative AI is transforming the media and entertainment industry.

This episode features Peter Csathy's recent "AI Royalty Marketplace" exclusive Digital Hollywood session (recorded late July 2026). Peter is joined by an expert panel that features Adam Greenberg of The New York Times, Dave Davis of Protege, Emi Wayner (formerly Google AI), Luke Arrigoni of Loti, and Mickey Maher of Vermillio. 

The discussion focuses on the latest updates in the world of content licensing for all facets of AI use (training, outputs, RAG) - and for all forms of media (video, music, text) - and the different approaches used for each of them (and how those business models have evolved, and continue to evolve). Peter drills down deeply with each panelist to get exclusive "insider" information about actual pricing used and other key business and licensing terms not available anywhere else.

It's a fascinating session that is remarkable in the level of critical perspectives, insights and information - for anyone in the overall AI entertainment/media ecosystem - which is essentially all of us.

Reach out to host Peter Csathy at [email protected], and check out Peter's entertainment, media, AI and tech-focused business advisory and legal services firm Creative Media. You can also sign up for his free generative AI-focused newsletter "the brAIn" on Substack (via this link) -- all about how generative AI is transforming the media and entertainment industry.

This episode features Peter Csathy's recent exclusive Digital Hollywood AI/Legal roundtable session recorded late July 2026 - in which Peter, Chief Legal Officer Jeffrey Bennett of SAG-AFTRA, and Partner Avery Williams of McKool Smith discuss all the latest developments in the world of AI, copyright, name image likeness (NIL) personal rights, and SAG's new contract. 

It's an "Insider's" look of all the key business and legal issues, together with an "insider's" view of how the SAG negotiations transpired. All the key issues. All the latest updates (including on the 125+ global AI copyright litigations).

And it's a session that is "must listening" to anyone who plays any role in the world of entertainment, media, AI and tech -- including consumers themselves.

Reach out to host Peter Csathy at [email protected], and check out Peter's entertainment, media, AI and tech-focused business advisory and legal services firm Creative Media. You can also sign up for his free generative AI-focused newsletter "the brAIn" on Substack (via this link) -- all about how generative AI is transforming the media and entertainment industry.

It used to be so simple to answer the question “who” made this music, image, video, advertising, or piece of art. Not anymore. Not in the world of generative AI. So it should be no surprise that the “AI labeling” moment has arrived. 

In this episode -- AI LABEL ALERT -- Google NotebookLM's synthetic co-hosts discuss Peter's upcoming article about the increasing expectation of consumers for AI transparency - and the cost to those creators and brands that choose to stay silent and opaque about their use of generative AI in their content and ads.

It's a timely discussion since just today, The Wall Street Journal reported that a coalition of major music industry trade groups led by the RIAA — and backed by major Hollywood players SAG-AFTRA and the Human Artistry Campaign — are pushing Spotify and Apple Music to adopt a dual-tag AI labeling system. They’re demanding a black “AI” tile for music tracks generated entirely by AI — and a lowercase “ai” tile for tracks that merely lean into AI. 

Two AI labeling tags. One goal. Let the listener decide!

PETER's NOTE: I've listened to the episode and approve its contents.

Reach out to host Peter Csathy at [email protected], and check out Peter's entertainment, media, AI and tech-focused business advisory and legal services firm Creative Media. You can also sign up for his free generative AI-focused newsletter "the brAIn" on Substack (via this link) -- all about how generative AI is transforming the media and entertainment industry.

This episode discusses host Peter Csathy's upcoming article about the breaking news that Google's DeepMind just invested $75 million into powerhouse taste-making, auteur-driven, boutique studio A24.

Yes, A24 — the darling of film hipsters everywhere — just jumped the AI shark. The studio behind breakout hit Backrooms and Academy Award-winning Everything Everywhere All at Once just shook hands with the biggest of Big Tech bros, Google. The mandate? To develop custom AI tools for A24 filmmakers. 

A24's talking points about the deal focus on non-threatening storyboarding AI use cases. But make no mistake. Storyboarding is just the Trojan Horse for AI going mainstream into the full pre-production, production, and post-production workflow -- every step of the way.

Csathy's virtual co-hosts discuss it all here -- including what this deal means to the overall Hollywood creative community. Csathy listened to - and approves - the episode's contents and vouches for the insights.

Reach out to host Peter Csathy at [email protected], and check out Peter's entertainment, media, AI and tech-focused business advisory and legal services firm Creative Media. You can also sign up for his free generative AI-focused newsletter "the brAIn" on Substack (via this link) -- all about how generative AI is transforming the media and entertainment industry.

Remember when ByteDance’s AI video model Seedance was a four-letter word in Hollywood? That was only four months ago, when it was Public Enemy #1 — the AI thief caught red-handed lifting Hollywood’s IP.

Fast forward to today. Seedance now firmly wears the crown with Hollywood creatives. Ask leading AI filmmakers — the ones building the future of video production — and they’ll tell you the same thing. Seedance is the most powerful AI video model on the planet. Full stop. 

In this episode, Google NotebookLM's hosts discuss Peter Csathy's article of the same name from his "the brAIn" newsletter. Peter has listened to the contents - and vouches for its P.O.V. and overall utility.

Reach out to host Peter Csathy at [email protected], and check out Peter's entertainment, media, AI and tech-focused business advisory and legal services firm Creative Media. You can also sign up for his free generative AI-focused newsletter "the brAIn" on Substack (via this link) -- all about how generative AI is transforming the media and entertainment industry.

Peter Csathy recently sat down with Character.AI CEO Karan Anand. While their conversation focused on the notorious chatbot pioneer’s surprising pivot to entertainment and its aggressive courtship of Hollywood IP, it sparked a related new phenomenon — we have now entered the era of the “Always On” celebrity. 

In this episode -- based on Peter's recent article of the same name -- Peter's hosts explore the issues raised by Peter's article (and the opportunities it explores).

Imagine living — and even deceased — artists, athletes, and performers completely freed from the physical constraints of time, travel, and human exhaustion. Always available to “work,” and always collecting the scaling revenues that flow from it.

This new “Always On” celebrity opportunity dovetails perfectly with the related concept Peter and Anand previously discussed — “Living IP.” For the last century, Hollywood’s monetization model has essentially relied on a predictable, rigid formula — develop IP, control its distribution window, and charge a passive audience a fee to watch it. It’s a top-down experience controlled by the studio.

The evolution of interactive AI completely flips this script, giving the audience agency. Instead of waiting two years for the next movie featuring their favorite superhero character — or for their favorite musician’s next album — fans can now engage in ongoing, continuous, interactive, two-way experiences with that IP (characters, music).

It's a fascinating podcast, hosted by Google NotebookLM's co-hosts. Peter listened to the entirety of the episode and approves its content.

Reach out to host Peter Csathy at [email protected], and check out Peter's entertainment, media, AI and tech-focused business advisory and legal services firm Creative Media. You can also sign up for his free generative AI-focused newsletter "the brAIn" on Substack (via this link) -- all about how generative AI is transforming the media and entertainment industry.

In this episode, I feature my exclusive interview with Karan Anand, CEO of Character.AI — the controversial “AI companion chatbot” company that has been at the center of the AI storm (including tragic stories of teens who commit suicide after having established deep relationships with their chatbots).

Likely surprising to many of you (it was to me), Character.AI is now pivoting to be first and foremost an AI entertainment company — courting major studios and creators alike to build and monetize fandom. This is Anand’s elevator pitch: “Think if Roblox, TikTok, and Wattpad had a baby ... this is what Character.AI is rapidly evolving into.”

But can Character.AI successfully make this pivot? And how credible and powerful is its new pitch, including on the critical issues of teen safety? Can the company gain the trust of major studios, IP owners and celebs/influencers from whom they'd like to license content for fandom?

I ask Anand the hard questions. And to his credit, he doesn’t shy away from any of them. 

It’s an important, fascinating, and candid conversation — and Peter and Karan covered a lot of ground in 60 minutes, every minute of which is newsworthy.

NOTE: After our interview, Character.AI asked me to include its official response to the new litigation filed by the state of Pennsylvania. Here it is.

“We do not comment on pending litigation. Our highest priority is the safety and well-being of our users.

The user-created Characters on our site are fictional and intended for entertainment and roleplaying. We have taken robust steps to make that clear, including prominent disclaimers in every chat to remind users that a Character is not a real person and that everything a Character says should be treated as fiction. Also, we add robust disclaimers making it clear that users should not rely on Characters for any type of professional advice.

Character.ai prioritizes responsible product development and has robust internal reviews and red-teaming processes in place to assess relevant features.”

Reach out to host Peter Csathy at [email protected], and check out Peter's entertainment, media, AI and tech-focused business advisory and legal services firm Creative Media. You can also sign up for his free generative AI-focused newsletter "the brAIn" on Substack (via this link) -- all about how generative AI is transforming the media and entertainment industry.

This week I feature last week’s exclusive Digital Hollywood expert panel discussion about AI and copyright — the latest legal and business updates. 

I moderated this great panel, which featured AI expert lawyers Lisa Oratz of Perkins Coie, Anthony Glukhov of the RAMO firm, and Jonathan Handel of Feig, Finkel — together with AI and marketing expert Albert Thompson of Walton Isaacson.

We covered a lot of ground in 50 minutes — and it’s worth listening to all of it. You’ll learn a lot, no matter what role you play in the worlds of media, entertainment, AI and tech.

Reach out to host Peter Csathy at [email protected], and check out Peter's entertainment, media, AI and tech-focused business advisory and legal services firm Creative Media. You can also sign up for his free generative AI-focused newsletter "the brAIn" on Substack (via this link) -- all about how generative AI is transforming the media and entertainment industry.

Just when you thought Hollywood’s increasingly open embrace of AI coincided with newly emerging AI economics and Big Tech norms of engagement, we have a major plot twist. TikTok’s owner from China, ByteDance, just re-launched largely guardrail-less Seedance 2.0 worldwide — and the Hollywood industry’s latest AI pariah is now readily available in the U.S. 

Welcome to the new “AI Trade War!”

In this episode, the co-hosts discuss Peter Csathy's article of the same name which tackles the subject - and lays out the implications. (Peter generated the episode using Google NotebookLM - listened to it - and approves the content.)

Reach out to host Peter Csathy at [email protected], and check out Peter's entertainment, media, AI and tech-focused business advisory and legal services firm Creative Media. You can also sign up for his free generative AI-focused newsletter "the brAIn" on Substack (via this link) -- all about how generative AI is transforming the media and entertainment industry.