From motorized projectors to generative AI: cultural conflicts over labor automation in Hollywood
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Recent discourse around generative artificial intelligence has characterized its implications for creative labor as wholly unprecedented. This article challenges that framing by situating generative A.I. within a longer history of technological change in Hollywood. We conduct a historical analysis of three cases in which an emerging technology promised to automate aspects of creative production: the spread of motorized film projectors in the early 1900s, the rise of computer-based editing software in the mid-1980s, and the introduction of screenwriting software in the late 1980s. Through a content analysis of newspaper and industry trade publications, this analysis finds that whether and how a technology is understood as "automating" by different sets of actors is not simply a technical determination but a culturally constructed one, shaped by competing narratives among workers, management, and the public. Each case is characterized by a different kind of narrative conflict: projectionists fought over the definition of professional skill; film editors confronted accelerated workflows and managerial interference; and screenwriters policed barriers to entry against would-be "hacks." In each of these narrative conflicts, we point to patterned similarities to and differences from contemporary conflicts over generative A.I. in Hollywood.
Source: AI & Society
Authors: Caitlin Petre, Julia Ticona
Institutions: University of Southern California, University of Pennsylvania
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,190
OpenAlex ID: W7204184704