Big Tech Takes Hollywood

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Hollywood and Big Tech are increasingly battling for control of the entertainment industry’s future.

Behind the Streams: Companies like Amazon and Meta are aiming to take over the entertainment industry as legacy studios are pushed aside. But traditional media companies aren’t going down without a fight, pursuing their own megadeals to keep pace.

Closing Deals: This fight isn’t just about making great content anymore. It’s about controlling how audiences discover it. Tech leaders like Jeff Bezos have spent years expanding into media, and now that same playbook is reshaping the entertainment industry. For better or worse, the companies that control distribution may also control what gets made.

The Future: The next wave of entertainment deals may be less about buying studios and more about building direct relationships with audiences. In the years ahead, don’t be surprised if reach becomes just as valuable as intellectual property.

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As more companies incorporate AI into their daily operations, employees are being stripped of their full-time duties, and gig work is becoming the new norm.

Why This Hits: AI is transforming the culture of work. While it’s not eliminating human work entirely, the technology is creating an increasingly gig-based workforce.

Final Gig: As a result, more workers are unionizing to protect their jobs and push back against AI’s growing role in the workplace. Healthcare workers in California went on strike to protest the outsourcing of their jobs to AI, while IT workers at the University of California unionized to push for more control over how AI is used.

The Future of Work: The conversation around AI may soon shift from what the technology can do to what companies should be allowed to do with it. That could usher in a new wave of labor protections and AI regulation — or at least that's the hope.

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80.8% of you voted Yes in yesterday’s poll: Would you say you’re into Steven Spielberg’s films?

“He’s the GOAT. A one-man cinematic universe. He basically built Universal Studios with his IP, launched DreamWorks, and directed franchise-starter Jurassic Park and Oscar winner Schindler’s List in the same year. Come on — what’s not to love?”

“If anyone doubts his ability or vision, please watch the Jaws documentary. He was 25 years old. What were you doing at 25? I know I wasn’t making a summer blockbuster. I saw Jaws in theaters when it was released. It was swimming pools, during the day, for the rest of the summer.”

“I love Steven Spielberg’s films. His early adventure and war films are epics. Some of his work misses the mark, but nobody’s gonna hit 💯 every time.”

“There’s a saying in my house: ‘A Spielberg ending’ — when a saccharine conclusion ruins an otherwise OK (or sometimes great) film. Imagine A.I. if Kubrick had gotten to finish it…”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join Poll Of The Day, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

🍸 The race to become the next James Bond is heating up as filmmaker Denis Villeneuve and producers Amy Pascal and David Heyman prepare for another round of auditions in August.

📺 Paramount’s $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly nearing approval in Europe, bringing the media mega-merger one step closer to reality.

🎵 Hitmaking duo Max Martin and Shellback have sold a portion of their Wolf Cousins catalog — including rights tied to songs by Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, Ariana Grande, and Imagine Dragons — to HarbourView.

💾 Taiwan’s AI boom is turning Hsinchu from farmland into a luxury hub, with chip-industry wealth driving everything from real estate prices to population growth.

🎮 Rockstar has revealed that Grand Theft Auto VI will launch as a single-player-only game on November 19, with the standard edition priced at $80.

🤖 OpenAI has unveiled Jalapeño, its first custom AI chip built with Broadcom that could help make its models faster, cheaper, and less dependent on Nvidia.

🎾 Evian is celebrating its 200th anniversary with a limited-edition collection of Wimbledon-inspired bottle bags designed by artists Ed Curtis, Hattie Stewart, and Diana al Shammari.

🏡 The latest luxury home amenity isn’t a home theater or man cave — it’s a wellness room, as saunas, cold plunges, and other longevity-focused features become the newest real estate status symbols.

💗 BLACKPINK is teaming up with Tamagotchi on a limited-edition virtual pet that blends Y2K nostalgia with K-pop fandom, arriving later this month via LINE FRIENDS.