August 28, 2026
🎬 Horror Master M. Night Clicks Into YouTube
1. YouTube has been pulling in big-name celebrities and news anchors in growing numbers over the last few years, but most major Hollywood film directors have stayed away from fully adopting the platform. That time is now over. Director M. Night Shyamalan has just launched his personal YouTube channel. Filmed outside of his private office, Shyamalan says part of the reason for launching the YouTube channel was to “undo whatever stigmas are in my head, or in anybody’s head.”
It’s not clear what stigma he’s referring to, but some might guess it has to do with his up-and-down directing career. After an early meteoric rise, fueled by his Oscar-nominated film The Sixth Sense and then Unbreakable, his creative reputation began to wane after the release of Lady in the Water (Bryce Dallas Howard, Paul Giamatti), The Happening (Mark Wahlberg), and After Earth (Will Smith). Since then, M. Night has struggled to get out of “director jail” and has gradually succeeded with cult hits Split (James McAvoy), Glass (Samuel L. Jackson), Apple TV’s Servant (Nell Tiger Free, Lauren Ambrose), and Knock at the Cabin (Dave Bautista).
Shyamalan has always been one of the great experimentalists in Hollywood, often with a bent toward horror or the supernatural. But Hollywood serves at the altar of hits, not necessarily innovation in the realm of unorthodox screenplays and unusual themes. That’s why YouTube may be the perfect playground for Shyamalan, especially now that there’s no longer any “stigma” around being on the platform, with the Academy Awards set to broadcast the Oscars on YouTube in 2029.
What’s Really Happening Here: More than anything, my read is that Shyamalan’s YouTube turn is based on the current frenzy in Hollywood to sign directors with interesting Internet (read: Reddit) community-driven stories, often independently developed on YouTube. Case in point: Kane Parsons. YouTube was the cinematic birthplace of fellow horror auteur Parsons, whose Backrooms film is now the most successful A24 film ever at nearly $400 million in worldwide box office revenue.
Shyamalan, who has always been a nimble filmmaker, has been paying attention and is wisely embracing the Internet platform that is poised to launch many new directing careers. “I’ve been really excited about this for a while, and so today is a really special day for me,” said Shyamalan. “Make sure to subscribe to see my next upload this Sunday, it’s a good one.”
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🎤 Rap’s Richest Producer Embraces AI
2. “I don’t see [AI] as a threat. I think the only people that see it as a threat are the people who have trouble creating… I had a discussion with a few people a few days ago. They were against A.I. and I’m like, ‘OK, you sound like the person that would have been against the drum machine when it came out.’ Or synthesizers, right? It’s a new tool for creativity. Some people are afraid of learning new things. I’m embracing it. I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen with this… I’m using it. Again, as a tool to see what it would do with what I just did.”
—Dr. Dre, music producer/entrepreneur, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Beats headphones
*Source: The New York Times
🤖 Wall Street Journal Plunges Media World into All-Out AI War
3. Welcome to the new media world, where machines are now tasked with framing reality, instead of humans. The New York Times is executing AI summarization. Axios’ leadership has been proudly discussing the creation of local newsletters using AI-generated text. And following a dust-up over a Wall Street giant being revealed as using AI to submit an opinion editorial in The Wall Street Journal, the paper’s editorial page editor, Paul Gigot, has defended Stanley Druckenmiller’s use of AI, saying, “AI is a fact of modern life. People will use it to assist in their work and their writing, including with research, checking grammar, editing and more.”
The media and business communities were, predictably, divided over the issue, with non-media folks mostly giving a “what’s the big deal?” collective shrug. Some defending the AI op-ed even tossed in the red herring of the common practice of business leaders using ghostwriters to write their op-eds and books for many years. Sure, the disclosure of ghostwriters has always been a thorny issue, but I’m not sure these commenters realize that they’re still comparing a human ghostwriter (who actually thinks and speaks to the business leader) to an algorithm. To bring home the point regarding the importance of the provenance of human words, The Atlantic went so far as to publish a fake op-ed by Paul “Claude” Gigot titled “Why I Am Right About AI: Human writers are expensive, and they eventually die. AI is cheaper, and will never join a union.”
Shortly after the media frenzy over Gigot’s stance, IAPE, the labor union representing Wall Street Journal employees, weighed in. “IAPE is disappointed by the WSJ Opinion section’s willingness to publish AI-generated content in its Pulitzer Prize-winning pages. WSJ readers deserve better, and our members deserve to have their good work published each day without the taint of Opinion’s AI causing some to wonder whether standards might change on the News side.”
Mixed Messages: The Wall Street Journal’s apparent new shift on AI-generated writing becomes even more curious when you consider the statement made by News Corp’s chief executive, Robert Thomson, during the company’s earnings report earlier this month. “Much of the world is being reshaped by artificial intelligence, but artificial intelligence itself is only as useful and only as trustworthy as the quality of its inputs,” said Thomson. “We believe that makes News Corp an absolutely critical participant in the emerging AI ecosystem. Without our journalists, our authors, our data, our brands and our professional expertise, users would be drowning in a slimy sea of AI slop.”
The Atlantic’s fake op-ed title alone makes a few great points about this AI discussion. But generally, here’s the biggest problem with Gigot’s approach to AI-generated articles in the Wall Street Journal: this is temporary, not-so-strategic cope. The media’s embrace of AI could be another flash-in-the-pan pivot to stave off the media grim reaper of falling views and stagnant revenue, or a true move toward future-proofing the business and ending the mainstream media careers of most (not all) journalists.
The most pessimistic/cynical scenario is that these publishers know exactly what they’re doing and have already planned the five- to 10-year reduction in human staff as AI models improve year-over-year. If today you’re willing to let AI write your news summaries, op-eds, and local newsletter coverage, why would you avoid increasing the amount of content AI handles as it improves?
Sure, a few humans will still be needed to gather quotes from other real humans, but nothing like the staff currently populating The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Those of us who argue against allowing AI to take the thinking jobs away from human journalists aren’t practicing anti-AI religion. On the contrary, even for the most tech-forward journalists, the AI pushback is an appeal to the meaning and efficacy of human journalism that is created by individual human perspectives, rather than an algorithm loosely collaging together its corporate-automated lens on reality.
🎭 Hollywood Union Fights Off Celeb Deepfakes, Again
4. “Authenticity is core to the Cameo experience for talent and fans alike. Ensuring that talent feel safe and in control of their name, image, and likeness is essential; talent on Cameo retain full ownership of their submitted videos, and Cameo’s policies prohibit any account from using AI to generate deepfake videos of talent without their explicit authorization. Cameo does not use talent videos to create or train AI digital replicas without talent permission. The talent agencies and organizations of this coalition are supportive of Cameo’s efforts to protect talent and their livelihoods, which continue to evolve.”
—SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood actors’ union, along with CAA, WME, UTA, & Music Artists Coalition regarding human celebrities on the custom video message platform Cameo. ✍︎
MAN AND ROBOTS is a weekly column from MARS Magazine on AI, Hollywood, and the future of work. All editorial text is written by humans.
Cover image: Photo illustration of M. Night Shyamalan with several of his famous characters.
