March 19, 2025

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit Participants 2025

The second annual Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit was held March 15, 2025. These experts were involved in an immersive day grounded in applied use cases of artificial intelligence and its impact on the television industry.

Participants

Dave Davis / General Manager, Protégé Media

James Deutch / Head of Television, Electromagnetic Production

Andrew Folks / Associate, Data Strategy, Privacy & Security, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz

Barbara Ford Grant / M+E Executive; Filmmaker

Seth Hallen / Founder, Hallstone Ventures; AI & MediaTech Investor & Advisor; Media & Entertainment Technology Industry Leader

Alyssa Katalyna / Writer/Director/Producer

Ghen Laraya Long, Esq. / Entertainment and Technology Attorney

Christina Lee Storm / Co-Founder, Playbook PLBK; Governor, Television Academy; Co-Chair, Advocacy Committee

Christina Lee Storm Christina Lee Storm is an award-winning producer and executive recognized for her pioneering work at the intersection of storytelling and technology spanning television, film, animation, documentaries, virtual reality, augmented reality, and XR.

As Co-Founder of PLAYBOOK PLBK and Founder/CEO of ASHER XR, Christina leads her companies to strategically, creatively, and ethically integrate emerging technologies like real-time, virtual production, and AI into traditional, digital, and multi-platform storytelling. She has been instrumental in implementing creative and strategic production technologies and driving innovation in content creation for studios such as Netflix, Universal, and DreamWorks Animation.

As former Director of Virtual Production UCAN at Netflix, Christina played a pivotal role in establishing global virtual production ecosystems, spaces, and stages collaborating with filmmakers and industry partners to drive growth and adoption. She spearheaded virtual production across Netflix's series, films, unscripted, and ancillary content.

While at DreamWorks Animation, Christina was Vice President of Business Operations, Strategy, & Emerging Technology, where she championed the future of real-time content creation and workflows.

Christina served as Head of Content & Acquisitions at Positron where she played a key role in strategizing, driving, and acquiring premium cinematic VR content for the company's platform.

Christina serves as the Governor of the Television Academy’s Emerging Media Programming peer group, Co-Chair of the Academy’s Advocacy Committee, and an active member of the Television Academy’s AI Task Force. Additionally, she serves on the Producers Guild of America's Production Innovation Task Force, the Los Angeles Mayor’s Entertainment Industry Council and Workforce Development Sub-Committee. Christina is also an advisor for Runway’s 100 Film Fund.

Globally known as a thought leader in the emerging media landscape, Christina is recognized for her leadership and dedication to the industry. She was inducted into AWE’s inaugural XR Hall of Fame, received the Lumiere Distinguished Leadership Award in Technology, and she is a proud Founding Member of DreamWorks Animation's TECHWomen.

Holly Leff-Pressman / Chief Client Engagement Officer, Screen Engine/ASI

Craig Patterson, Writer/Director, Everyday Mischief

Kylee Peña / Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Pro Editorial, Adobe

Robyn Polashuk / Co-Chair Entertainment and Media Practice, Covington & Burlington

Robyn Polashuk Robyn Polashuk is co-chair of the firm's Entertainment and Media Industry Group. She focuses her practice on the licensing and distribution of television networks and programming content across a variety of platforms, including cable and satellite, IPTV, mobile, and Internet streaming. These transactions span the business models available to consumers, such as subscription linear pay television, ad-supported, subscription and transactional video-on-demand, electronic sell-through and interactive applications. As part of this work she also negotiates retransmission consent agreements on behalf of broadcast stations. Robyn has extensive experience in digital distribution in the areas of “over the top” (OTT), TV Everywhere (TVE), and direct-to-consumer (DTC) structures. She handles a variety of agreements in this space, including traditional network and program distribution, premium subscription content licenses, app placement, revenue sharing, dynamic ad insertion arrangements, and content licensing for training of AI models. Robyn’s practice also extends to due diligence and contractual analysis in connection with media-related corporate transactions, most favored nations review and interpretation, and guidance for distribution-related disputes and litigation. Robyn works closely with Covington’s tech transactions, litigation, corporate and regulatory attorneys to provide multi-faceted support for programming clients’ licensing and distribution businesses. Robyn represents leading media groups, film and television studios, sports leagues and emerging networks, in general entertainment, national and regional sports and specialized programming genres, as well as both major and emerging technology, and Internet companies. These include AMC Networks, Fox Corporation, NFL Network, Paramount Global, TelevisaUnivision, The Walt Disney Company and TV One. She has negotiated on behalf of content owners with all the traditional television distributors, such as DIRECTV, Charter/Spectrum, Comcast, DISH Network and Verizon, as well as streaming distributors and platforms, such as DIRECTV Stream, FuboTV, Roku, Sling TV, Twitter, YouTube TV and Xumo. and sits on the Copyright Society’s AI sub-committee.

Eric Shamlin / CEO, Secret Level; Governor, Television Academy; Chair, AI Task Force

Julie Shapiro / Professor and Director of the Entertainment and Media Law Institute, Loyola Law School

Ben Sheffner / Senior Vice President & Associate General Counsel, Law & Policy, Motion Picture Association

Ben Sheffner Ben Sheffner is Senior Vice President & Associate General Counsel, Law & Policy, at the Motion Picture Association, where he specializes in copyright, First Amendment, and other legal and policy issues of importance to the MPA’s member studios. With dual appointments in the MPA’s Legal and Government Affairs departments, Ben works closely with attorneys and policy advocates internally and at the MPA’s member studios to formulate and implement strategies to create a favorable environment for the industry to thrive, both economically and creatively. Among his several roles, Ben frequently represents MPA before federal and state government officials and entities; manages the MPA’s amicus brief program; and serves as counsel to the Title Registration Bureau.

Prior to joining the MPA in 2011, Ben held in-house legal positions at NBCUniversal and Twentieth Century Fox and worked as an associate in the Century City office of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, where he litigated copyright and other cases for major movie studios, television networks, and record labels. In 2008, Ben served as Special Counsel on Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, where, among other responsibilities, he handled the campaign’s copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property issues. Ben served as a law clerk for the Hon. M. Margaret McKeown on the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 2000-2001.

Ben serves as an Adviser to the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law, Copyright project and has previously held positions as a Trustee of the Copyright Society of the USA as well as the Los Angeles Copyright Society, and as a participant on the Uniform Law Commission committee that drafted a uniform anti-SLAPP statute.

Prior to attending law school, Ben worked as a political reporter in Washington, DC for the Cook Political Report and Roll Call newspaper, where he covered congressional elections, the term limits movement, campaign finance reform, and various other issues related to Congress’ internal politics and administration. Ben received an A.B. from Harvard College and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall).