Music Vets Attack Suno, AI Doom Essay Spooks Wall Street, Ice-T Defends AI, & Study Reveals: Do Fans Want AI Actors?
MAN AND ROBOTS: Weekly signals on how AI and automation are reshaping work & creativity.
FEB. 27, 2026
🤖 Viral 2028 AI Death Note
1. A viral market analysis essay titled “The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis” by Citrini Research founder James van Geelen and his colleague, Alap Shah, published last Sunday, apparently spooked investors, with some attributing a 1% dip in the following Monday stock market to the AI doom memo. In short, it predicts what AI will do to white-collar business and the overall economy by 2028, and even calls for an AI-driven recession in 2027. “AI capabilities improved, companies needed fewer workers, white-collar layoffs increased, displaced workers spent less, margin pressure pushed firms to invest more in AI, AI capabilities improved… It was a negative feedback loop with no natural brake.” The good news: Some experts are pushing back against the dreary forecast.
What It Means For Hollywood: In one part of the essay, van Geelen and Shah write, “The [2028] velocity of money flatlined. The human-centric consumer economy, 70% of GDP at the time, withered. We probably could have figured this out sooner if we just asked how much money machines spend on discretionary goods. (Hint: it’s zero.)” Setting aside, for the moment, how film and TV will be produced in 2028, historically, entertainment is surprisingly resilient to economic tumult.
“Movie attendance is higher than average when consumer sentiment is low,” claims a 2016 research paper titled “Measurement of interactions in non-linear marketing models: The effect of critics’ ratings and consumer sentiment on movie demand.” Film and TV generally serve as an escape valve, allowing a respite from other, darker aspects of life, like high grocery prices, skyrocketing rent/home prices, and major unemployment. This entertainment business advantage is less pronounced when it comes to live entertainment, theme parks, and advertiser-supported entertainment, since advertisers generally pull back during recessions.
🎤 Hip-Hop Icon Understands AI Disruption
2. “The days of the expensive videos are over. There isn’t even MTV. AI is the only sensible way to add visuals to a song. You can hate it all you want. It’s the Future … I honestly believe we may be the last generation of Real actors… The Future has no regard for personnel jobs. Ask Kodak film. Or Blockbuster Video. Hey, I’m just a Realist. I don’t love AI, I just understand it’s here to stay.”
-Ice-T, rapper/actor, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
