AI investor Jeffrey Katzenberg says resisting AI is pointless

"To resist technology is to risk irrelevance," he wrote on X.

By Olivia Singh  |  September 23, 2026 | 5:13pm
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AI investor Jeffrey Katzenberg says resisting AI is pointless

Jeffrey Katzenberg has a lot to say amid the ongoing discourse (and specifically the outrage) over the use of AI in Hollywood. On Wednesday, the Hollywood executive turned AI investor wrote a lengthy essay on X titled The World is Changing: AI For Creativity. In it, Katzenberg drew on his experiences on both sides of the technology debate and argued that people need to embrace AI rather than resist it. “There is growing fear and resistance surrounding AI within the creative community,” he wrote, adding that he understands the sentiment after working closely with artists and seeing the hours poured into the creative process. Katzenberg then compared the current resistance to the past outcry over technological advances that became game-changers for the industry, like the introduction of sound in movies, which he acknowledged replaced many human jobs. “Technology didn’t diminish the craft, it expanded the canvas,” he said, justifying such advancements. “It gave artists more room to create.”

Katzenberg doubled down on his stance by pointing to animation’s evolution, from painstakingly hand-painted cells to CGI, resulting in fully computer-animated successes like Pixar’s Toy Story. “This is a story that has been told over and over again,” he wrote. “To resist technology is to risk irrelevance. Just look at Kodak or Blockbuster. To embrace technology is to open doors of new possibility. Just consider Apple and Netflix.” Katzenberg, co-founder of the tech investment firm and holding company WndrCo, argued that AI should be used alongside human creativity, rather than as a replacement for it. “Taste is not something that can be synthesized, it is uniquely human,” he wrote. “At the same time, Hollywood needs to accept that AI is not going away. The energy they are spending trying to make it disappear is energy they are not spending deciding the terms on which it will exist. ” Sounds like something a guy with millions invested in AI stock, AI marketing startups, Kimbal Musk’s drone light-show company, and even microdramas, would want us to think. 

 
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