PBS News: The world's largest tech showcase does not come without theatrics. Innovations and gadgets like a lollipop that sings to you as you consume it, a laundry-folding robot and a "smart" LEGO brick have stolen the spotlight so far at CES 2026. But underscoring this year's programming is a strong focus on an industry that relies on a similar theatrical flair: entertainment.
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It was interesting to read a little more about how the entertainment industry and tech at large is changing because of AI. This article includes a lot of opinions and perspectives from all the different people and companies at CES. What I took away from this was that AI will have its uses and applications in entertainment for sure, yet being able to find the line between help and hinder is very important. Additionally, there is little control over what AI uses for its information and if it is copyrighted. I think that eventually we will be able to use AI for a multitude of things yet the industry and the legislation does not yet exist for it to be used correctly. I was very interested by the quote from the article that said when photoshop was first introduced it had the same kind of creative backlash. To me this shows that eventually AI will be accepted in the same way that photoshop now is.
The only argument for the use of AI that I have heard anyone use is that “it's just another tool” and that “when other new tools came out people freaked out but now it's fine.” and while those are technically true points, the problem with AI is that it makes it incredibly easy to make quick and completely soleless art. I keep hearing people say that AI is just lowering barriers and making everyone a storyteller. But, I stand firmly on the side that in order to be an artist you have to fail repeatedly until you figure out your own specific brand of expression. So AI allowing anyone to just type whatever pops into their head and have something else pop out just creates a bunch of nonsense with no real story or point behind it, and I know it's where everything is headed, but I just really wish that people would take two seconds to stop thinking about efficiency all the time and take the time to appreciate that art exists for the joy of it, not so it can be churned out of some factory for profit.
This article worries me. Seeing the comments about how AI levels the playing field made me upset. Somebody who uses AI is not a storyteller or artist and never should be. AI pulls from other peoples work, so anything made with it, even if it comes from unique prompts is automatic plagarism. Storytelling and art takes time and thought and talent and it should remain that way. If someone wants to become and artist or a storyteller, they should have to pick up a pencil or stylus or keyboard (for writing) and learn like the rest of us. With enough practice and time, anybody can become and artist and/or storyteller and I think that is an essential part of the process. Without that process, there is a lack of critical thinking, a lack of failing and learning from your mistakes, and, often, a lack of passion as well. All that time spent and effort speaks to the humanity and emotion in a piece, which is essential to a story/piece of artwork. By using AI, all that is lost, and the work should no longer be considered artwork.
The most striking thing about this article for me was the quote from the CEO of Leonardo.ai, where he said that generative artificial intelligence for creative works ‘levels the playing field.’ I fundamentally disagree with that assertion. A machine can never create art, because it inherently lacks creativity. A more apt quote that we as a society may want to consider at this moment is from Dune, where Frank Herbert wrote ‘Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that it would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.’ Artificial intelligence is already destroying creativity on the internet and our sense of truth. To see the CEOs of these new AI corporations touting their products as a replacement for creativity is really disheartening. It still remains to be seen how AI continues to develop over the years, and how it will ultimately affect creative works, as well as misinformation on the internet.
I agree with a lot of the points in this article regarding ai and its uses in modern society, I think ai has built up a lot of fear surrounding it(for good reason of course it takes jobs from people everyday and can be used for some nefarious things) but I think people demonize ai itself a bit too much instead of the people using ai in the wrong way. New technologies that have made life easier have been coming out for a long time now and while ai seems like the most detrimental one yet, I think it’s important to remember that’s it’s a tool like a lot of the other technology softwares that have come out, and while I’m not saying that ai should be as normalized as it’s becoming in 2026 I do think that people should focus a lot less on AI itself and more on how people are using it. Ai should only really be a tool not a replacement for human artists and it’s important to make sure people in the industry know that as well
Not to poop on the party over here but this “new emerging technology” is killing our earth. Now I don’t know about anyone else, but as one of the people that lives here I think I’d rather hire a real human actor than watch the planet dwindle as the cost for AI. Humans are supposed to drink about 2-3 liters of water per day. Even “smaller” data centers use on average 68,100 gallons a day. Why do we so desperately need an AI actor to take a human job that is worth so much of our planet that we literally all live on? The argument that we need to embrace the new technology is ignorant of how little healthy earth we have left. We can all keep ignoring it until the planet can’t sustain life, or we could think a little bit in the future. Oh wait- it’s cheaper to let the machines do the thinking right? Sure, push aside the argument that people will lose their jobs over this because of course, we have had the same discourse before, but if we don’t hire the people, then the people don’t make money. If the people don’t make money, they can’t see the shows. Let me go on and on about how this newer wave of technology replacing humans is only of benefit to like ten people in the whole world forever just, reconsider whether or not the AI technology you’re using is worth more resources lost, more neighborhoods impacted, and more real human people suffering the consequences.
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