This Week in… Artificial Intelligence: 4/2/26

Filmmaker Coerte Voorhees and the estate of Val Kilmer are bringing the popular actor back to cinema with generative AI. ‘South Park’ creators reveal plans for their boutique firm Deep Voodoo and why they believe AI could help launch a new era of creativity in Hollywood. And as AI continues to ramp up across most industries, Johns Hopkins University historians Angus Burgin and Louis Hyman reflect on what we’ve learned from earlier tech revolutions. These are a few of the notable stories that recently caught our attention.

Val Kilmer Resurrected by AI to Star in ‘As Deep as the Grave’ Movie: First Look
Variety

Is Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Deep Voodoo the Rare Company Doing AI Right?
The Hollywood Reporter

Q&A: What History Can Teach Us About AI
Johns Hopkins University

How Disney Imagineers Are Using AI and Robotics to Reshape the Company’s Theme Parks
Fast Company

Hollywood Reframes AI as Infrastructure, Not Replacement
Axios

Kathleen Kennedy Just Told an AI Conference She’s Not So Sure About AI
The Hollywood Reporter

This Is What Honest AI Conversations Sound Like in Hollywood IndieWire

CNN Veteran Laurie Segall Wants to Take a ‘Mostly Human’ Approach to Covering AI and Big Tech
The Hollywood Reporter

Artificial Intelligencer: OpenAI’s $852 Billion Problem: Finding Focus
Reuters

I Wrote a Novel Using AI. Writers Must Accept Artificial Intelligence – But We Are as Valuable as Ever
The Guardian

AI Could Change the World. But First It Is Changing Silicon Valley.
The New York Times

AI Companies Shatter Fund-Raising Records, as Boom Accelerates
The New York Times

AI Models Lie, Cheat, and Steal to Protect Other Models from Being Deleted
Wired (subscription required)