With the roll-out of artificial intelligence tools (AI) in all areas of the media industries, there is a growing need for scholarly analysis of the ways systems of automation, predictive analytics, and recommendation are transforming film, television, gaming, music, and other forms of digital entertainment. Media scholars have already begun to conduct important research in this area. AI tools such as Showrunner AI, Deep Editor, Respeecher, and Runway Gen-3 are transforming the production of media content and the roles of creative workers from actors, cinematographers, and editors to sound designers and makeup artists. There is a long history of technological change in the entertainment industries, but the current conjecture has brought sudden and dramatic transformations that demand investigation by media industry and technology scholars.

The Carsey-Wolf Center (CWC) at UC Santa Barbara has assembled a team of academic researchers for a new initiative on Media Industries and AI led by Professors Jennifer Holt, Ross Melnick, and Lisa Parks. The initiative has funded fourteen groundbreaking projects from twenty-one scholars who represent universities in fifteen countries and three continents. Researchers will be meeting at UCSB in spring 2026 to discuss their work and then return in fall of 2027 to present their findings.