Michael Ovitz Says Having Tech And Entertainment Execs “Intertwined With Policymakers Can Only Lead To Positive Things For The Country”
Michael Ovitz, for decades a Hollywood power player and now a specialist in technology, sees only upside to the recent commingling of Big Tech, Hollywood and Washington.
“I find that having people in tech and entertainment intertwined with policymakers can only lead to positive things for the country,” the co-founder of CAA told CNBC in a wide-ranging interview Tuesday. (Watch the full segment above.) “I’m very happy that everyone’s talking with each other. I think these split schools were terrible for the country.”
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Ovitz didn’t get specific in describing who is talking to whom, but the interactions in recent weeks have been striking, especially given the opposition to President Trump in the tech sector during his first term in office. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and CEO of Tesla who once was openly skeptical about Trump, has established an office in the White House and taken an active role in shaping federal policy. Musk was joined at Trump’s inauguration last week by a gallery of ultra-wealthy tech leaders, among them Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos.
The interview didn’t dwell on policy, instead allowing Ovitz to blue-sky about the potential of technology. He described being asked in 1999 to join the board of directors at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz as “the single most life-changing experience for me.” Having a front-row seat in tech “opened up for me a world that I now live in that is the most fascinating, interesting place to be.”
Asked about the impact of AI on Hollywood, Ovitz predicted it will have “a substantial effect on a number of things in creativity. I don’t think it’s going to happen as quickly as everyone has hoped. The entertainment business over the years has been very slow to adopt outside technologies.”
The main area where it will register, Ovitz said, will be production. “I don’t see any soul in AI yet,” he said. “I don’t see the kinds of things that would attract audiences. What I do see is an extraordinary ability to cut production costs, and I think we’re going to see that put into place. We’re going to start to see applications coming into entertainment that will start to be adopted.”
Without alluding by name to DeepSeek, Ovitz said, “I know there are all sorts of conversations going on now about this Chinese AI company” potentially unseating U.S.-based AI firms like Nvidia. “I am bullish, bullish, bullish on American technology and where we stand,” the former super-agent continued. “The entertainment business is finally going to benefit from that tech.”
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