In his first earnings call as CEO at the helm of both Paramount and Warner Bros., David Ellison talked up his merged Hollywood empire as a tech-forward enterprise — and part of that tightrope walk included an embrace of AI while also dismissing “AI slop.”

It’s a two-step that’s not necessarily an easy one. The technology is widely seen as a harbinger of doom for Hollywood’s traditional workflows (i.e. building sets, shooting with real background extras, going on-location, etc) while also being increasingly adapted and integrated into the business (see: Ben Affleck’s VFX firm, which has helped Netflix use AI on 300-plus titles so far, while supposedly preserving the things that make Hollywood, Hollywood).

Ellison told analysts that he expects AI to help his company’s studios make content faster and cheaper, likening the technology as the biggest breakthrough in the industry since CGI effects went mainstream.…