AI isn’t new to Hollywood — but this was the year when it really made its presence felt. For years now, the entertainment industry has used different kinds of generative AI products for a variety of post-production processes ranging from de-aging actors to removing green screen backgrounds. In many instances, the technology has been a useful tool for human artists tasked with tedious and painstaking labor that might have otherwise taken them inordinate amounts of time to complete. But in 2025, Hollywood really began warming to the idea of deploying the kind of gen AI that’s really only good for conjuring up text-to-video slop that doesn’t have all that many practical uses in traditional production workflows. Despite all of the money and effort being put into it, there’s yet to be a gen-AI project that has shown why it’s worth all of the hype.
Technology
Hollywood cozied up to AI in 2025 and had nothing good to show for it
This confluence of Hollywood and AI didn’t start out so rosy. Studios were in a prime position to take the companies behind this technology to court because their video generation models had clearly been trained on copyrighted intellectual property. A number of major production companies including Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery did file lawsuits against AI firms and their boosters for that very reason. But rather than pummeling AI purveyors into the ground, some of Hollywood’s biggest power players chose instead to get into bed with them. We have only just begun to see what can come from this new era of gen-AI partnerships, but all signs point to things getting much sloppier in the very near future.
Though many of this year’s gen-AI headlines were dominated by larger outfits like Google and OpenAI, we also saw a number of smaller players vying for a seat at the entertainment table. There was Asteria, Natasha Lyonne’s startup focused on developing film projects with “ethically” engineered video generation models, and startups like Showrunner, an Amazon-backed platform designed to let subscribers create animated “shows” (a very generous term) from just a few descriptive sentences plugged into Discord. These relatively new companies were all desperate to legitimize the idea that their flavor of gen AI could be used to supercharge film / TV development while bringing down overall production costs.
Asteria didn’t have anything more than hype to share with the public after announcing its first film, and it was hard to believe that normal people would be interested in paying for Showrunner’s shoddily cobbled-together knockoffs of shows made by actual animators. In the latter case, it felt very much like Showrunner’s real goal was to secure juicy partnerships with established studios like Disney that would lead to their tech being baked into platforms where users could prompt up bespoke content featuring recognizable characters from massive franchises.
That idea seemed fairly ridiculous when Showrunner first hit the scene because its models churn out the modern equivalent of clunky JibJab cartoons. But in due time, Disney made it clear that — crappy as text-to-video generators tend to be for anything beyond quick memes — it was interested in experimenting with that kind of content. In December, Disney entered into a three-year, billion-dollar licensing deal with OpenAI that would let Sora users make AI videos with 200 different characters from Star Wars, Marvel, and more.
Netflix became one of the first big studios to proudly announce that it was going all-in on gen AI. After using the technology to produce special effects for one of its original series, the streamer published a list of general guidelines it wanted its partners to follow if they planned to jump on the slop bandwagon as well. Though Netflix wasn’t mandating that filmmakers use gen AI, it made clear that saving money on VFX work was one of the main reasons it was coming out in support of the trend. And it wasn’t long before Amazon followed suit by releasing multiple Japanese anime series that were terribly localized into other languages because the dubbing process didn’t involve any human translators or voice actors.
Amazon’s gen-AI dubs became a shining example of how poorly this technology can perform. They also highlighted how some studios aren’t putting all that much effort into making sure that their gen AI-derived projects are polished enough to be released to the public. That was also true of Amazon’s machine-generated TV recaps, which frequently got details about different shows very wrong. Both of these fiascos made it seem as if Amazon somehow thought that people wouldn’t notice or care about AI’s inability to consistently generate high-quality outputs. The studio quickly pulled its AI-dubbed series and the recap feature down, but it didn’t say that it wouldn’t try this kind of nonsense again.
All of this and other dumb stunts like AI “actress” Tilly Norwood made it feel like certain segments of the entertainment industry were becoming more comfortable trying to foist gen-AI “entertainment” on people even though it left many people deeply unimpressed and put off. None of these projects demonstrated to the public why anyone except for money-pinching execs (and people who worship them for some reason) would be excited by a future shaped by this technology.
Aside from a few unimpressive images, we still haven’t seen what all might come from some of these collaborations, like Disney cozying up to OpenAI. But next year AI’s presence in Hollywood will be even more pronounced. Disney plans to dedicate an entire section of its streaming service to user-generated content sourced from Sora, and it will encourage Disney employees to use OpenAI’s ChatGPT products. But the deal’s real significance in this current moment is the message it sends to other studios about how they should move as Hollywood enters its slop era.
Regardless of whether Disney thinks this will work out well, the studio has signaled that it doesn’t want to be left behind if AI adoption keeps accelerating. That tells other production houses that they should follow suit, and if that becomes the case, there’s no telling how much more of this stuff we are all going to be forced to endure.
Nothing’s next budget phone is the latest victim of RAMageddon. As 9to5Google reports, Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis announced in a post on X that a follow-up to the CMF Phone 2 Pro won’t be coming this year:
We were working on a successor but with memory prices where they are right now, we can’t build a phone that feels like a genuine step forward at a price that makes sense for CMF. As a result, we’ve decided not to launch a new CMF phone this year.
Last week, Nothing CEO and co-founder Carl Pei also said the RAM shortage has impacted the cost of the company’s mid-range phone, stating, “For Phone 4A, memory costs doubled between when we decided to build the device and when it launched. They’ve doubled again since.” According to Pei, “memory is now the most expensive component in a smartphone.” Nothing is far from the only company facing RAM pricing challenges — earlier this week, Tim Cook announced Apple will be raising prices, saying “the situation has become unsustainable.”
While there won’t be a new CMF phone this year, Evangelidis added in his post that CMF still has “several new products launching as well as some entirely new categories.” He also hinted that “the smartphone launch season at Nothing isn’t over yet.”
China approves world’s first commercial brain chip
Apple unveils new child safety tools, enabling parents to manage kid accounts, media access, communication, apps, and browsing. Tech companies like Meta, Roblox, YouTube and TikTok enhance safety with age verification, content moderation and time limits. China approves the world’s first commercial brain chip, raising privacy concerns.
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A coin-sized brain chip in China could help people with paralysis control devices using their thoughts. China has approved a brain-computer interface called NEO for commercial medical use in certain patients with paralysis caused by spinal cord injuries. That moves brain-chip technology out of research trials and closer to real-world medical care.
Developed by researchers at Tsinghua University and Shanghai-based Neuracle Technology, NEO sits under the skull but rests on the brain’s protective outer layer rather than piercing deep into brain tissue. That design could make it less invasive than some competing implants.
For patients who have lost movement, this kind of technology could be life-changing. It could help restore a level of independence that once felt out of reach. But here’s where we need to slow down a bit. If a brain chip can turn your brain signals into digital commands, we need to ask who controls that data and how well it is protected.
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China’s NEO brain implant could help some paralysis patients control devices, like prosthetic hands, with their thoughts while raising concerns over brain data privacy. (Tsinghua University)
What is China’s NEO brain chip?
NEO is a brain-computer interface, often called a BCI. These systems read brain activity and translate it into commands for an external device. In this case, the implant uses sensors placed near the brain’s motor-control area. Those signals can help a patient operate equipment such as a robotic glove or computer interface.
What makes NEO especially notable is its placement. Brain-computer interfaces can be designed in different ways, and some go deeper into the brain than others. The company most people know in this space is Neuralink, the brain-chip startup co-founded by Elon Musk. Its implant uses tiny threads that enter the brain’s cortex. NEO takes a less invasive approach by placing electrodes on the dura mater, which is the protective membrane around the brain.
That design matters because every brain implant carries medical risk. Surgery can cause bleeding, swelling, infection or tissue damage. Even a small complication in the wrong part of the brain can affect speech or movement.
China’s approval does not mean brain chips are suddenly available for anyone who wants one. This remains a medical device for a narrow group of patients. Right now, the focus centers on helping people with severe paralysis regain some digital or assisted movement control.
Why China’s brain chip breakthrough matters
The medical upside here is hard to deny. More than three billion people worldwide live with neurological conditions, according to the World Health Organization. That includes people dealing with stroke, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries and other serious conditions.
For someone who has spent years unable to move freely or communicate easily, even a small amount of restored control could feel enormous. That is why brain-computer interfaces are getting so much attention. They could give some patients a new way to interact with the world around them.
Neuralink has already shown what that can look like in real life. Audrey Crews, a Neuralink trial participant who has been paralyzed for years, publicly shared that she wrote her name using the implant by controlling her computer.
ELON MUSK SHARES PLAN TO MASS-PRODUCE BRAIN IMPLANTS FOR PARALYSIS, NEUROLOGICAL DISEASE
How China’s brain chip compares with Neuralink
Elon Musk’s Neuralink has attracted most of the public attention in the U.S. brain-chip race. Musk has talked openly about restoring movement, helping people communicate and one day addressing vision loss.
Neuralink received approval to begin human trials, and more than 20 people have reportedly received its implant through testing. However, it has not received broad FDA approval for general commercial use.
China’s NEO approval puts a different kind of pressure on the field. It shows that China wants to move brain-computer interface technology into its health system and build a major industry around it.
This also fits a larger pattern. China has made BCI development part of its strategic technology push. The country wants breakthroughs by 2027 and a globally competitive brain-computer interface industry by 2030.
The coin-sized NEO brain chip rests on the brain’s protective outer layer, making it less invasive than implants that pierce brain tissue. (Tsinghua University)
Why brain chip privacy is such a big concern
We already worry about phones listening, apps tracking location and smart TVs collecting viewing habits. Brain-computer interfaces take that concern to another level.
A BCI collects signals from the nervous system. Today, that may mean decoding movement intent, such as whether a patient wants to move a cursor left or right. But as the technology improves, the data could become more sensitive.
That raises some big questions. Who owns the brain data? Can it be sold, shared or used to train AI systems? Could an insurer, employer or government ever demand access? What happens if a company changes its privacy policy after the implant becomes part of someone’s daily life?
Those questions sound dramatic until you remember how many connected devices began as conveniences and turned into data pipelines.
A brain chip designed for medical help should not become another ad platform, another surveillance tool or another database waiting to be breached.
YOUR HEALTH DATA IS BEING SOLD WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT
Could hackers target brain-computer interfaces?
This is where the whole brain-chip conversation gets very serious. Any device that connects to a computer raises security questions. A brain-computer interface raises even bigger ones because it deals with signals from your body and, in some cases, the devices that help you move or communicate.
The concern here is someone getting access to neural data, device settings or the commands moving between the implant and outside equipment. Think about that for a second. If a brain chip helps someone control a robotic hand, a wheelchair or a communication device, a security failure could affect far more than privacy. It could affect that person’s independence and safety. That to me is scary.
Companies building these devices need to treat cybersecurity like part of the surgery, not some software update they figure out later. Encryption, strict access controls, medical-grade testing and clear update policies should be baked in from day one.
And because a brain implant may stay inside a person’s body for years, long-term support has to be part of the deal. No one should end up with an outdated implant in their head because a company moved on to the next big product launch.
What China’s brain chip means to you
For now, this technology is geared toward patients with serious medical needs. So, no, most of us are not lining up for a brain chip anytime soon. But this should still get your attention.
We already give up a lot of personal data through our phones, watches, cars and smart home devices. A brain implant takes that to a whole different level because the data comes from inside the body. That is about as personal as it gets.
Before this technology moves beyond hospitals and medical trials, patients need plain answers before they agree to anything. They should know who can access the data, how long it gets stored, whether it can be shared and whether it can help train AI systems.
The medical potential here is incredible. Helping someone regain control or communicate again could change a life. But the privacy protections need to be just as strong as the technology itself.
NEURALINK BRAIN IMPLANT HELPS ARIZONA MAN REGAIN CONTROL OF HIS LIFE
Brain-computer interfaces, like Neuralink, pictured here, could restore independence for some patients, but experts say neural data needs strong privacy and cybersecurity protections. (Neuralink)
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Kurt’s key takeaways
China’s NEO brain chip could be a huge step forward for people living with paralysis. If this technology helps someone regain control or communicate again, that is powerful. But I also think we need to be very careful here. Once a device connects your brain signals to outside technology, the privacy stakes change fast. We are talking about data tied to your nervous system. That to me is the line we need to watch closely. Brain chips could do incredible good. But companies and governments need clear limits before this technology moves any further into everyday life. The promise is real. So are the risks. And when the data comes from inside your own head, “trust us” will never be enough.
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Would you ever consider a brain implant if it could restore movement or communication, or does the privacy risk feel too personal to accept? Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.
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Relativity Space, the rocket company led by former Google executive Eric Schmidt, was picked to launch NASA’s Aeolus payload to Mars in 2028, as reported earlier by TechCrunch. Under a new public-private partnership, Relativity Space will provide the “spacecraft, rocket, and cruise operations” to fly Aeolus to Mars, where the payload will “provide the first integrated, daily, global view of Martian winds, temperatures, dust, and clouds.”
The Aeolus payload will have four instruments on board for studying the Martian atmosphere, which NASA says will “directly inform entry, descent, and landing systems and support safer, more predictable mission planning for astronauts.”
Schmidt, who served as CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011, became Relativity Space’s CEO in 2025, a couple of years after it launched the “world’s first 3D-printed rocket,” Terran 1, which failed shortly after launch. Relativity Space’s larger Terran R rocket isn’t scheduled to have its first launch until later this year.
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