The global debate around AI governance is becoming impossible for the media and entertainment industry to ignore. What was once viewed primarily as a technology conversation is now fundamentally a creative, ethical and legal one.

At NAB Show, the session “PROTECT: Made by Who? Creativity, Credit, and Copyright in an AI World” explored the growing tension between innovation and ownership as AI rapidly reshapes filmmaking and content production. From script development and visual effects to localization, marketing and virtual production, generative AI is transforming how stories are made, accelerating workflows, reducing costs and expanding creative possibilities at an unprecedented scale.

But alongside those opportunities come critical questions that the industry is still racing to answer. Who owns AI-assisted creative work? How should artists, editors and filmmakers be credited when AI tools are involved? And how can studios, brands and platforms ensure transparency, consent and copyright compliance while still embracing innovation?

Among the session panelists, Mishawn Nolan, co-founder and managing partner from Nolan Heimann, highlighted how critical platform governance has become, explaining that companies are now “platform shopping” and asking legal teams to review AI providers’ terms of use to understand “what they could do, what they had to tell the brand, [and] what the platform was going to do with the material.” She also noted that creators increasingly “have the ability to shop platforms and figure out what’s going to work.”

As AI adoption accelerates across Hollywood and the broader creator economy, provenance and accountability are becoming just as important as efficiency. The future of storytelling will not be shaped solely by what AI can generate, but by the frameworks the industry establishes to protect human creativity, preserve trust, and ensure creators remain at the center of the process.