Tech Giants Buy Hollywood For Soft Power: AI Film & The Cost of Empty Sound Stages — Alan Lasky

Apr 21, 2026

Alan Lasky, MIT Media Lab alumnus and former Silicon Graphics/AWS exec, brings technical depth and industry history. He dissects Hollywood's decline and why tech giants buy media for soft power. Conversations jump between AI-driven production changes, empty soundstages and real estate incentives, and the rise of indie creators using affordable AI tools.

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ANECDOTE

Filming Shuttle Launches From Under The Crawler

Ted recalls filming under the shuttle crawler and multiple launches at minimum distance.
He emphasizes Artemis's historical significance and the team's accomplishment as under-appreciated.

INSIGHT

Apple's Audio Smart Glasses Will Be A Major Entrant

Apple is entering AI audio smart glasses and will deploy Apple’s marketing muscle.
Rony reports insiders saw designs from former Magic Leap engineers and expects Apple to execute strongly on audio wearables.

ADVICE

Avoid Assuming Direct Retraining Works

Don’t expect one-to-one retraining of below-the-line crew into VFX roles.
Alan recounts SGI retraining attempts for grips and electricians that largely failed because people chose those jobs for different reasons.

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Alan Lasky arrived at the AI XR Podcast straight from Las Vegas ahead of NAB. An MIT Media Lab graduate under Nicholas Negroponte, a veteran of Silicon Graphics and Amazon Web Services, and an advisor to investment banks on AI and media, he brings technical depth, industry history, and financial realism about where media is actually going.

The conversation covers Hollywood's structural collapse, AI's role in the production renaissance, and the harder question of why trillion-dollar tech companies keep buying media businesses that can't generate comparable returns.

Alan's answer: soft power. Amazon makes $950 million Lord of the Rings spinoffs so you order more paper towels. Apple is making Neuromancer. His five-year weighted moving average of Disney stock — flat from 2018 — makes the argument clean.

AI XR News You Should Know: Artemis ignited a new space boom. Amazon acquired Global Star satellite to build Project Kuiper, a direct Starlink competitor. Apple's AI audio smart glasses are reportedly arriving this year per Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, entering a market where Meta owns the optometrist channel and Google is moving through Warby Parker. Snap laid off 15% while doubling down on the 2026 launch of Spectacles — the first see-through headset since Magic Leap.

Key Moments:

[00:04:48] – Artemis and the space boom: Ted on filming shuttle launches and why the crew's accomplishment is underestimated.
[00:08:33] – Apple AI audio glasses: Rony's read from former Magic Leapers who designed them — if Apple gets this wrong, it's unforgivable.
[00:12:00] – Snap's layoffs and the see-through gamble: can they compete with cheap AI audio glasses flooding the market?
[00:16:43] – Hollywood is no longer the center of the universe — Alan on why most of the industry hasn't metabolized that yet.
[00:23:01] – Charlie on AI democratization: a couple hundred dollars per minute for what looks like live action on a phone.
[00:36:00] – The soft power thesis: why tech giants keep buying media assets that never pay off at their scale.
[00:41:30] – Should Apple buy Disney? Charlie says Meta will do it first. Rony's reaction is immediate and visceral.
[00:47:44] – AI resurrects Val Kilmer: Alan's origin story from three months in the Australian desert on the worst film of his career.

Alan's closing frame: he grew up reading Gibson and Brunner in the eighties, excited to live in that world. He's in it. He's not sure he wanted it this way.

This episode is sponsored by Zappar and Mattercraft — the leading visual development environment for immersive 3D web experiences, now with AI-assisted design and debug. Build at mattercraft.io.

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