Free-market enthusiasts and mutual admirers Elon Musk and Javier Milei, Argentina’s new president, will headline next week’s Milken Institute Global Conference, the annual Beverly Hills confab that tackles the world’s most pressing problems with a dash of celebrity and Hollywood.

The Beverly Hilton event draws several thousand people from around the world and will kick off with remarks Monday by International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.

Also packed into a busy program will be Milei, a libertarian populist elected in November amid soaring inflation in his country, who will speak at lunch. Musk will close out the day talking with Michael Milken, founder of the conference and its sponsor, Santa Monica’s Milken Institute think tank.

The theme of this 27th annual gathering is “Shaping a Shared Future,” a reference to finding common ground amid the complex issues that have arisen in the post-pandemic world, including war, the emergence of artificial intelligence and the need to create a sustainable economy amid climate change — employing the tools of capitalism. All public panels can be watched on the institute’s website.

“The world is in transition again,” said economist Kevin Klowden, the institute’s executive director of MI Finance. “And what you’re seeing in the U.S. right now is a huge amount of dissatisfaction. There’s this very real sense that people would like to go back to the way it was prior to the pandemic, but it’s not.”

The conference headliners — who have been described as having a bromance, with Musk hosting Milei at Tesla headquarters in April — highlight some of the challenges and possibilities of finding common ground.

Musk has warned artificial intelligence could lead to the destruction of civilization without proper safeguards, and this year sued industry leader OpenAi, which he had co-founded when it was a nonprofit before leaving in 2018. He accused it of violating its original charter in search of profits.

OpenAi Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap will be a featured interview Monday on one of several conference panels about artificial intelligence.

The whiskered Milei is a self-described anarcho-capitalist who has vowed to shut down Argentina’s central bank. He will take the stage just hours after Georgieva of the IMF, a global institution that is often the target of populists yet is working with his administration to help dig Argentina out of its economic hole.

Among the leading themes is sustainability. John Podesta, President Biden’s senior advisor on international climate policy, will discuss the issue with Exxon Mobile chairman and chief executive Darren Woods.

That will be followed up by a talk among Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from coal state West Virginia; Chevron chairman and chief executive Michael Wirth and a top Department of Energy official.

“Up to this point, a lot of climate change has been hypothetical, but look at what you are seeing now in terms of the insurance market, wildly varying temperatures, the [flooding] pictures from Dubai. This is the new reality,” Klowden said. “There is a real understanding from the business community, the finance community, that this is something that needs to be incorporated into the future.”

As is typical, Wall Street bigwigs will opine on financial markets, asset management and other topics. The notables include hedge fund managers Bill Ackman and Ken Griffin, private equity titan David Rubenstein, hospitality magnate Barry Sternlicht, billionaire investor Ron Burkle and Wells Fargo chief executive Charles Scharf.

Hollywood panelists include Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive David Zaslav, producer Brian Grazer and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Soccer superstar and businessman David Beckham will speak on branding.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass will welcome the guests while former L.A. mayor and current U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti will talk about that country’s future. Public officials on stage will include the presidents of the New York and Minneapolis federal reserve banks and Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of multiple panelists on medicine and health, another focus of the Milken Institute.

The conference will not ignore the war in Ukraine, as well as Israel’s campaign in Gaza — which has sparked protests at UCLA, USC and college campuses nationwide — with some panels touching on the Middle East conflict by invite only and behind closed doors.

Klowden said it was important for the conference to address the Gaza conflict, especially since the institute has wide contacts in the Middle East and holds an annual summit there. However, given the sensitivity of the matter, “the fact is that nobody wants to come out and publicly say something at the global conference or anywhere else that’s going to upset everything,” he said.

The conference ends Wednesday with a concert by John Fogerty, who led Creedence Clearwater Revival and wrote the counterculture classic “Fortunate Son”— playing at one of the country’s leading celebrations of capitalism.

Allen Media Group, the company owned by TV mogul Byron Allen, is set to undergo a significant round of layoffs that will affect all divisions of the business.

“Allen Media Group is making strategic changes to better position the company for growth that will result in expense and workforce reductions across all divisions of the company,” a spokesperson said Thursday in a statement to The Times.

“Allen Media Group’s brands continue to perform well and in many areas our revenue growth has greatly outpaced the market. We are aligning these changes to drive future business opportunities and support our growth strategies in our rapidly evolving industry.”

The company did not say how many jobs would be cut.

Allen Media Group is the parent company of the Weather Channel and a number of local TV stations.

The stand-up comedian and TV producer has been making lots of headlines lately amid reports that he was among the entertainment executives looking to acquire Paramount Global.

Earlier this year, Allen made a $14.3-billion bid to purchase all of the outstanding shares of the New York City-based entertainment company — home of Paramount Pictures, CBS and other legacy brands and franchises.

But analysts and investors were skeptical of Allen’s bid for Paramount, questioning whether he’d be able to raise the funding necessary to pull off a deal.

This is a developing story.

SAG-AFTRA has tapped audience measurement company Nielsen to provide streaming data that will inform how the performers union enforces certain terms of its new contract with the top studios.

Nielsen announced Thursday that it will function as the official third-party provider of streaming viewership numbers for the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The Nielsen data is expected to complement additional viewership info supplied by the streaming giants themselves.

“New business models require new tools, and that’s why we’ve enlisted Nielsen,” said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, chief negotiator and national executive director of SAG-AFTRA. “The information they provide will give us the means to cross-check the data streamers give us and ensure employers are fulfilling their contractual obligations to our members.”

The partnership comes several months after SAG-AFTRA reached a deal with the major studios and streamers to end the 118-day actors’ strike. As part of that three-year pact, the streaming companies have agreed to share viewership numbers with the guild.

SAG-AFTRA intends to use the data to qualify for bonuses performers employed on hit movies and TV shows streaming on Netflix, Max, Amazon’s Prime Video and other platforms. Per the contract, actors are entitled to a bonus (in addition to residuals) if their program is viewed by at least 20% of the streaming service’s domestic subscribers within the first 90 days of its release.

Twenty-five percent of the bonus pool will go to a newly created streaming payment distribution fund, which will fund streaming bonuses for additional performers.

“The rapid evolution of the media landscape and audience behaviors over the past decade has not only affected how content is consumed and measured but also greatly impacts the financial models on which the entertainment industry operates,” said Karthik Rao, chief executive of Nielsen.