Infinite Content (AI, the Next Great Disruption of Media, and How to Navigate What's Coming)

The internet changed how media is distributed and GenAI will change what media is. A crucial guide to what comes next.

The internet eliminated one of media’s two foundational barriers to entry: distribution. By making it functionally free to move bits anywhere the network reaches, it upended the entire media value chain and triggered two decades of fragmentation, disintermediation, price deflation, globalization, and value destruction for incumbents—from music to print to Hollywood. GenAI is about to do the same to the other foundational barrier: creation. As the cost to make the bits also approaches zero, the implications will be equally profound, and probably more so. The disruption of distribution changed how media is transmitted and consumed; the disruption of creation will change what it is.

Infinite Content is a guide to navigating this next disruption. Doug Shapiro, a seasoned media executive and thought leader, provides a framework for understanding the current state of media. He lays out why the current chaotic state of media is a direct consequence of the disruption of distribution triggered by the internet; explains GenAI technology from first principles and why it is so well suited to media; constructs scenarios for how GenAI disruption could play out; maps where value migrates; and closes with concrete principles for navigating the most consequential transition of our times.