Good Disruption: AI + Entertainment

The proliferation of AI has given rise to fear of job replacement across many industries, including entertainment. Technologies like Chat GPT and AI-facilitated computer-generated imagery (CGI) threaten the livelihoods of tens of thousands of writers and actors. In April 2023, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Months later, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) followed suit. In their list of demands: protection from the use of AI by studios. Is this a real or perceived threat, and what is the potential impact on the consumer experience?

Darden Professors Mike Lenox and Yael Grushka-Cockayne speak with Professor Anthony Palomba, who teaches leadership communication and storytelling with data at Darden. His research explores how technology innovation influences competition among entertainment and media firms and the deployment of these technologies to better understand consumer and firm behaviors.

About the Expert

Anthony Palomba

Assistant Professor of Business Administration

Anthony Palomba teaches leadership communication and data visualization in the MBA program as well as management communication in the MSBA program. His teaching interests are focused on how business professionals can present data results and actionable insights to key stakeholders through storytelling. In his courses, he sheds light on the way leadership communication intersects with persuasion and data-driven decision-making that lead co-workers to take actions toward reaching a shared vision or accomplishing a set of business goals.

Intellectually, Palomba is fascinated by media and entertainment companies and the way they market their products in a dynamically changing competitive landscape. As a media management scholar, Palomba's research focuses on consumer behavior, branding, and marketing behind video games, television and film. His research explores how and why audiences consume entertainment and strives to understand how consumer behavior models can be built to predict consumption patterns. Additionally, he studies how technology innovations influence competition among entertainment and media firms.

B.A., Manhattanville College; M.A., Syracuse University; Ph.D., University of Florida

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About the Expert

Yael Grushka-Cockayne

Vice Dean; Senior Associate Dean for Professional Degree Programs; Altec Styslinger Foundation Bicentennial Professor of Business Administration

Grushka-Cockayne’s research and teaching activities focus on decision analysis, forecasting, project management and behavioral decision-making.

As an expert in the area of project management, she has served as a consultant to international firms in the aerospace and transportation industries. She is the secretary/treasurer of INFORMS Decision Analysis Society, a U.Va. Excellence in Diversity fellow and member the Project Management Institute.

B.Sc., Ben-Gurion University; M.Sc., London School of Economics; M.Res., Ph.D., London Business School

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About the Expert

Michael Lenox

Special Adviser for the Dean; Tayloe Murphy Professor of Business Administration

Lenox’s expertise is in the domain of technology strategy and policy. He studies the role of innovation in helping a business succeed. In particular, he explores the sourcing of external knowledge by firms and this practice’s impact on a company’s innovation strategy. Lenox has a longstanding interest in the interface between business strategy and public policy as it relates to the natural environment; his work explores firm strategies and nontraditional public policies that have the potential to drive green innovation and entrepreneurship.

In 2013, Lenox co-authored The Strategist’s Toolkit with Darden Professor Jared Harris. His latest book,

Lenox is a prolific author; his most recent book, Strategy in the Digital Age: Mastering Digital Transformation, examines how digital technologies and services enable the creation of innovative products and services, as well as identifying new competitive positions.

B.S., M.S., University of Virginia; Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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