AI on the Lot: Amazon's "Humans First" Vision Clashes With Schrader's Call to Cut Human Actors

At this year's AI on the Lot conference — billed as the world's largest gathering focused on AI in media, held near Amazon MGM Studios in Culver City — sharply opposing visions of Hollywood's AI future collided in a single day. Amazon's Albert Cheng opened with a "humans first" keynote, arguing that human creatives must remain active decision-makers at every stage of production. Within hours, however, Amazon announced three AI-animated series, one of which was promptly cancelled by its own creator, Jorge R. Gutierrez, following peer backlash.

Screenwriter Paul Schrader took the same stage the following day to flatly reject Cheng's framing, dismissing the need for human actors and arguing that audiences will readily empathize with AI-generated characters. The event's roughly 2,500 attendees also heard references to recent AI films including Hell Grind, which drew attention at Cannes, and Dream of Violets, the first full-length AI-made feature screened at Tribeca. CNET journalist and SAG-AFTRA member Katie Collins attended as a self-described AI skeptic and left, by her own account, more conflicted than convinced.