America's Creative Class Has Shed 200,000 Jobs — and AI Is the Prime Suspect
America Has Lost 200k of Jobs in Media, Film and the Arts. How Much Is AI?
Over the past four years, US media, film, and arts industries have lost more than 200,000 jobs, about 50,000 in the last year alone — a downturn as severe as the 2001 and 2008 recessions, but without a recession. Hollywood alone has shed over 100,000 positions, nearly a third of its workforce. The author argues AI is the clearest common thread: every digital arts subsector is shrinking while live entertainment keeps growing, and the music industry's Napster-era collapse offers a cautionary template.
Metallica may have been right on the law but were on the wrong side of technology; the RIAA had won the battle but was losing the war.