Hollywood is facing an uncomfortable contradiction. Artificial intelligence is raising fears about fewer opportunities for actors, writers and other creative professionals, yet some of the entertainment industry's most recognisable names are beginning to work with the companies developing the technology.
From licensing their voices for AI-generated content to publicly endorsing new tools, celebrities are increasingly becoming part of the industry's relationship with Silicon Valley.
OpenAI's partnership with footballer Lionel Messi ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup illustrates how technology companies are using globally recognised personalities to introduce AI products to new audiences.
In Hollywood, however, these relationships carry additional weight because many performers are worried about what these products could mean for their livelihoods.
A recent profile of Charles Porch, OpenAI's Hollywood liaison, in New York Magazine offers an insight into how these relationships are being developed. It also highlights an industry where commercial opportunities, creative experimentation and fears about job security are increasingly colliding.
OpenAI's Charles Porch Is Building Relationships With Hollywood Celebrities
Porch is not a conventional technology executive. Before joining OpenAI, he spent more than 15 years working at Instagram and Meta, helping bring celebrities, artists and influential public figures onto social media platforms.
His work included facilitating Beyoncé's surprise 2013 album launch on Instagram and helping establish the platform as an important destination for entertainment and popular culture.
OpenAI hired him in 2025, tasking him with developing relationships across the creative industries. His approach involves introducing influential people to company executives, organising private gatherings and encouraging conversations about the possibilities of AI.
Speaking to New York Magazine, Porch described his role as being the 'relationships person that's bringing everyone along on new tech'.
One of the relationships attracting attention involved Gwyneth Paltrow. The actress had planned to host a private dinner at her Hamptons home in August 2026 in honour of OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman.
After details became public, the gathering attracted criticism from observers who questioned the decision to host an event celebrating an AI executive while creative workers were expressing concerns about the technology. The dinner was postponed before eventually taking place in September at another host's home, according to New York Magazine.
The important distinction is that relationship-building does not automatically mean every celebrity involved has signed an advertising contract. Porch's work also involves introducing technology leaders to influential figures who might otherwise have little reason to engage with them.
Nevertheless, the strategy gives AI companies access to cultural influence that cannot necessarily be purchased through conventional advertising.
Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine Are Licensing Their Voices To AI
OpenAI is not the only company attracting established entertainment figures. AI voice company ElevenLabs has secured partnerships with several well-known performers, offering them opportunities to license their voices for use in synthetic audio content.
In November 2025, Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine became two prominent examples. McConaughey partnered with ElevenLabs to create a Spanish-language audio version of his Lyrics of Livin' newsletter and also invested an undisclosed amount in the company.
Caine joined its Iconic Marketplace, which allows businesses to request licensed access to recognised voices for different projects.
These arrangements illustrate why some performers might see AI as an opportunity rather than simply a threat. Licensing a voice or likeness can create another source of income, particularly for established actors whose identities already carry commercial value.
It can also give performers a degree of control over how their digital representations are licensed and used, rather than leaving those decisions entirely to outside companies.
Martin Scorsese has taken a different route. In June 2026, the filmmaker joined German AI company Black Forest Labs as an adviser and publicly supported its FLUX image-generation technology, which he used for storyboarding during pre-production.
He explained that the tool helped him communicate visual ideas to cinematographers and production designers.
However, his involvement attracted criticism from members of the filmmaking community. Animation director Samuel Deats criticised the decision on social media, arguing that AI systems built using artists' work should not be promoted by established filmmakers.
The Art Directors Guild also criticised the partnership, arguing that generative AI could undermine the contributions of storyboard artists, illustrators and other professionals working in film production.
Scorsese, meanwhile, defended the practical application of the technology, describing the ability to visualise and share storyboards quickly as 'creatively freeing'. There was no indication that he intended to replace human performers or production workers with AI-generated material.
Hollywood's AI Job Concerns Are Becoming Harder To Ignore
The commercial appeal of these partnerships becomes easier to understand when considering the financial pressures facing the entertainment business. Working performers do not all enjoy the security associated with Hollywood's biggest names, and access to new income streams can make technology partnerships attractive.
However, the employment concerns are not simply theoretical. A July 2026 investigation by the Los Angeles Times examined around 250 publicly available job postings across seven major film studios in late June, including Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros., Universal, Sony, Paramount and Amazon MGM. Approximately 30 appeared to be connected to AI, covering areas such as visual effects, animation, sound production, dubbing and marketing.
The research also found that studios were recruiting specialists to develop internal AI systems while hiring teams to protect their intellectual property against unauthorised use.
Importantly, none of the identified vacancies involved creating AI systems to write screenplays or produce synthetic actors. The findings indicate that studios are adopting the technology, although they do not establish how many existing jobs have already been eliminated because of it.
The industry has also been negotiating protections against potential displacement. In June 2026, SAG-AFTRA members approved a new four-year agreement with major studios, introducing additional restrictions concerning synthetic performers and digital replicas.
The agreement strengthens protections for performers' digital replicas and biometric information, while requiring studios to notify and bargain with SAG-AFTRA before using synthetic performers.
Producers have also committed to a principle favouring human performances and agreed not to use synthetic performers in human roles unless they bring significant additional value to a production.
The Writers Guild of America has also maintained protections requiring studios to disclose AI-generated material supplied to writers.
Its 2026 agreement adds requirements for companies licensing writers' scripts and completed projects based on those scripts to commercial AI developers for training, including written notification to the Guild and the possibility of discussions about compensation.
These developments show why celebrity involvement has become such a sensitive subject. An established actor may have the financial security and bargaining power to negotiate a lucrative licensing arrangement, while a lesser-known performer could have fewer opportunities to secure comparable terms.
There is also a difference between consenting to have a voice reproduced for a licensed project and supporting the wider use of generative AI across film production. Those arrangements should not be treated as interchangeable.
For technology companies, celebrity partnerships offer a route into an industry that has repeatedly questioned their intentions. For performers, they can provide new commercial opportunities, although those opportunities come with questions about the future value of human creative work.
Whether Hollywood's most recognisable names can help make AI more acceptable remains uncertain. What is clear is that technology companies are increasingly using relationships with influential cultural figures alongside software demonstrations and promises about productivity to build a presence in the entertainment business.
They are also building relationships with the people whose influence helped make Hollywood what it is.
