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The Ex-Pixar Producer Who’s All In on A.I.

A captivating conversation with Márcia Mayer, a former Pixar producer who now works at Google DeepMind, about the lab’s new A.I.-assisted short film that’s become the talk of Tribeca.

Dear Upstairs Neighbors film
A still from the animated short 'Dear Upstairs Neighbors,' written and directed by Connie Qin He. Photo: Courtesy of Google DeepMind
Ian Krietzberg
June 18, 2026

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Earlier this morning, I led a panel at UCLA’s 50th Entertainment Symposium that grappled with the many questions tormenting Hollywood in the agentic era: how studios can harness A.I. without upsetting the guilds, how to use generative film-production tools without sacrificing artistry, etcetera. Then, of course, there are the legal concerns that arise when you try to copyright I.P. largely generated by machines. These are big questions for the industry, and ones largely without clear answers.