The Efficiency Turn
Spending climbs, models slim down, and control becomes the new innovation story.
It’s probably fair to say that something is always going on with AI and Media these days, right? This week it might appear a little more subtle than usual. We are in the midst of a recalibration. We have seen continual growth for a couple of years in the space, despite worries about data privacy, authenticity, safe guards, and other concerns. But as any system matures, we need to see that acceleration and scale give way to maintenance. The easy gains (the mythical “low hanging fruit”) are gone and now it’s about power, precision, and proof.
Capital is continuing to flood in, but so are limits around compute, cost, and even credibility. The infrastructure that built the boom is starting to choke on its own ambition. Models are shrinking to fit real use cases. Studios are merging to protect IP that still carries cultural weight while entrenching their audience stakes. And even OpenAI is drafting moral blueprints before the regulators do it for them.
The center of gravity is shifting from…
