We here in Hollywood owe the world a huge apology.

No, I’m not talking about the live-action Snow White or another box-office-bomb joke du jour. I mean something far worse. While we could all use less doom-scrolling, it’s hard not to feel like everything’s on fire right now. Stagflation rising, ICE terrorizing our cities, AI slop drowning the internet — and, oh yeah, a looming bubble of overcapitalized data centers jacking up electricity costs and decimating drinkable water here and abroad. Also, global warming: still a thing, AI death cults notwithstanding.

But wait, you ask, how is this Hollywood’s fault? Aren’t we too busy trying to reboot 1950s-era comic books for the nth time? I thought this was all due to out-of-control Tech Bros? They’re the ones so obsessed with building RoboGod that they threw their golden horde behind Mad King Donald so that no one could stop them from littering the earth with data centers like so many cardboard Amazon boxes piling up in the hallway at Christmas.

Yes, you’re right. It is their fault directly. But we in Hollywood didn’t do enough to stop them.

It sounds quaint to think Hollywood could in any way control broligarchs with Ancien Regime levels of wealth. And obviously, we did something. The strikes in 2023 sounded an early alarm bell about the damage Silicon Valley’s AI frenzy would bring, and LA’s westside was nothing if not Kamala country… before it got burned to the ground in a fire set by someone possibly suffering Chatbot psychosis. But we didn’t do the right things.

The deepest truth of Hollywood is that, like cocaine, it primarily exists to help people with way too much money burn it in a relatively safe, ego-pleasing way that occasionally results in art. They get to moor their yachts in Cannes and Venice, party with a Hemsworth or two, then enjoy a tux-clad standing O for having backed something cool. That’s how it worked for most of the 20th century. In success, the insanely rich walk the red carpet and get a movie poster they can ogle in retirement. And the public gets some wild movies and TV shows that would otherwise never get made, doing crazy-stupid stuff like recreating Napoleonic-era sea battles off the coast of the Galapagos.

Hollywood was, and had always been, the casino of prestige and glamour for the richest of the rich. The trick was just finding that next pile of exorbitant wealth and luring it in with our siren song of cultural relevance and creative ambition. Around the turn of the century, starting with Google’s de facto monopoly on internet ad revenue, it was obvious that pile was in Silicon Valley. The playbook was clear: go butter up those sweaty-palmed, agoraphobic nerds. Get them to part with that cash, invest in a harebrained film-slate or ten. Teach them the ins and outs of artmaking, craftsmanship, taste. Get them all excited to make the dreams of tomorrow so they’d bankroll the weirdo theater kids to dress up and play make believe. In return, we’d do a biopic or two about their favorite computer science heroes. (PS: Math-y billionaires, if anyone’s a hardcore Kurt Gödel fan, I have the script!)

But we failed. Maybe the STEM-culture of social isolation was too ennervating for Hollywood to crack. Or we were too loathe to invite the be-hoodied introverts to the cultural party. Sure, Apple, Amazon and Netflix “invested” in “content.” But they did so with all the passion of a data analyst correcting a rounding error, which is all Hollywood is to them. They took our magic and made it mundane, probably because real creative risk-taking is so low on their priority list, like sub-basement panic room low. (Apple might have some claim to creative ambition; not surprisingly, it’s the tech giant least inclined to brazenly throw itself on the bonfire of AI.)

How Hollywood Failed Silicon Valley and the World

The Disconnect Between Hollywood and Silicon Valley Reality

Hollywood has long been fascinated with the world of Silicon Valley, crafting films and TV shows that promise a glimpse into the tech industry’s inner workings. Unfortunatly, this intersection of entertainment and tech has often magnified misunderstandings, resulting in a skewed public perception of Silicon Valley-and by extension, a distorted view of global technological progress.

Several key areas highlight where Hollywood’s narratives have fallen short and how that failure affects both Silicon Valley’s image and the broader world.

1. Oversimplification of Tech Innovation

Hollywood tends to reduce the complex tech ecosystem into quick success stories or dramatic personal conflict. Real innovation is iterative, collaborative, and deeply technical – aspects rarely explored with accuracy onscreen.

• Quick-fix success myth: Films frequently enough depict startup founders hitting a billion-dollar valuation overnight, which obscures the years of grinding hard work and failure behind the scenes.
• neglecting teamwork: The role of engineers, designers, and diverse teams is minimized, while “rockstar” CEOs are glorified.

2. Glorification of Toxic Culture and Maverick founders

Hollywood often glamorizes the “lone genius” or “disruptive rebel” archetype, which has contributed to an unhealthy idolization of risk-taking behavior often coupled with toxic workplace dynamics.

• Normalization of bad behavior: aggression and narcissism as pathways to success are heavily romanticized.
• underrepresentation of diversity: Media coverage rarely highlights women, minorities, or marginalized groups’ contributions to tech innovation, fostering a narrow-defined role model for aspiring innovators.

Media Influence on Public Perception and Policy

Hollywood’s influential storytelling shapes not only the consumer mindset but also investor expectations and policy decisions worldwide, affecting how technology is regulated and funded.

3. Misrepresentation of Tech Ethics and Social Impact

Films tend to dramatize the ethical dilemmas of tech as either extreme good-versus-evil narratives or sci-fi dystopias.This black-and-white portrayal oversimplifies complex issues like data privacy, artificial intelligence biases, and digital monopolies.

The consequence:

• Public confusion about the nuances of technological impact.
• Policy reaction based on sensationalized fears rather than balanced discourse.

4. Ignoring Global Tech Ecosystems

Hollywood’s Silicon Valley-centric focus fails to account for global innovation hubs, creating a US-biased narrative of tech supremacy. This exclusion causes:

• Undermining the role of international startups and governments advancing technology.
• Reinforcement of american exceptionalism in tech, slowing global cooperation and knowledge sharing.

Case Study: Popular Movies vs. reality

Practical Tips for Bridging the Gap

To improve understanding between tech and mainstream audiences,media creators,industry leaders,and educators can take concrete steps:

• Encourage authentic storytelling: Partner with real tech professionals as consultants to ensure accuracy and nuance.
• Highlight diverse voices: Showcase stories from women, minorities, and international innovators to present a richer tech narrative.
• Focus on process instead of output: Share the journey of innovation,including failures and collaboration,not just the glamorous outcomes.
• Educate policymakers: Use clearer, balanced portrayals to guide informed legislation around tech issues.

Benefits of Improving Hollywood’s Tech Storytelling

• Public Enlightenment: A better-informed audience understands innovation realistically, appreciating its challenges and triumphs.
• Stronger Ecosystem: Positive representation drives more diverse talent into tech, expanding creativity and impact.
• Global Cooperation: Recognizing worldwide innovation hubs fosters international partnerships and knowledge exchange.
• Balanced Tech Discourse: Nuanced narratives help policymakers enact laws that protect and empower tech growth.

Summary Table: Hollywood Failures vs.Tech Realities

First-Hand Industry Perspectives

Many Silicon Valley insiders express frustration with Hollywood’s inaccurate portrayals. They emphasize that while storytelling is creative,obligation comes with shaping public and investor mindsets that influence real-world outcomes.

As one tech entrepreneur noted, “Hollywood has the power to inspire innovation but too often they choose drama over truth, which can mislead aspiring founders and confuse the public about what technology actually does for society.”

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If anything, the streaming era stepped back from the glory days of cable, resuscitating the Network approach on digital steroids. There are exceptions and we still manage to sneak a few fun ones past the algorithm, but the apotheosis of bean counting has resulted in “respectable” shows that chase trends but rarely stand out. As if there was a magic formula for success that, once you found it hiding in enough data, you could shove into your sentient AI and remix the content feed over and over and — you get the idea. We let them think that spitting out pixels “iterated” at random was the same thing as making a point or telling a story. So of course, they hooked up some GPUs to try and imitate us.

Hollywood let Silicon Valley treat it like a logical, scientifically tractable business, which it only vaguely resembles, and not what it truly is: a batshit-crazy, shot-in-the-dark gamble. An excuse for high-net-worth individuals to indulge their follies, burn their wealth, and create “culture,” if only accidentally. It worked for the Medici, the Spanish crown, even our first generation of uncouth Robber Barons: once those pirates got filthy rich, they headed straight to Europe, stocked up on antiquities, now we have the Met. Because the uber-rich don’t really need actual taste or vision to play — artists supply that — they just need to feel like part of the team, and party with us whenever we hit the cultural jackpot.

But if that doesn’t happen, we get this world: the filthy rich indulge other misguided follies that do a lot more harm. Silicon Valley dreamt up poor derivations of past cautionary tales and created a monoculture of exploitative social media feeds and predatory data-hungry apps that birthed Orwell’s surveillance state. Worse, they violated the number one rule of drug dealers everywhere and started getting high on their own supply. Thus, the quest for AI God was born. Now we’ve got a world where starry-eyed herds line up to hear Peter Thiel ruminate on the Anti-Christ while Larry Page, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk trade in those mountains of gold for literal piles of cooked sand, so “Superintelligent AI” can spread through the “light cone” of the universe like cancer. Without our help, they succumbed to the half-baked dreams of children afraid of both actually living an emotionally healthy life and facing inevitable Death. And they made a deal with a political devil so they could build their sterile future unencumbered while the rest of us get to live with the consequences.

It didn’t have to be this be this way. If there’s one thing Hollywood does well, it is indulging mind-blowing folly in the face of stubborn mortality. But we always remember to keep it strictly imaginary. Alas, we dropped the ball, and now the Patriarchs of Silicon Valley have unleashed their very deep folly on this very real world.

So… sorry?

John Lopez, an L.A. native, has written for Strange Angel, Seven Seconds, The Man Who Fell to Earth and The Terminal List. He was also an associate producer on The Two Faces of January and spent years assisting Tom Sternberg, producer of Lost Highway.