AGBO Execs Tell TIFFCOM AI Should Assist, Not Replace, Filmmakers

AGBO executives Chris Brearton and Dominic Hughes gave a keynote discussion at TIFFCOM, the content market of the Tokyo International Film Festival, on Thursday, arguing that AI should assist rather than replace human creators in filmmaking. The session was covered by Variety.

Brearton is a partner and business leader at AGBO, while Hughes serves as the company's chief scientific officer and technology leader. Hughes said AI is good at critiquing and at repeating past work, but not at creating something from scratch.

Brearton said AI will be more impactful in the midterm in process efficiencies. He also said AGBO is using technology in 2026 to build a virtual theme park and a virtual community.

AGBO is headquartered in Los Angeles and produces cross-platform entertainment properties. Its founders, the Russo brothers, have cited Walt Disney, who brought Disney characters to life in theme parks, as an inspiration for the company's business philosophy.

Early in their careers, the Russo brothers worked on an Emmy-winning comedy and used digital cameras and editing to produce a script that would otherwise have been too long and expensive. AGBO's films include Extraction (2020), Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), The Gray Man (2022), Extraction 2 (2023) and The Electric State (2025).