There are those who fear that artificial intelligence will empty the cinema of its soul. In Venice Google tells a different story, made up of tools built together with the artists and not against them, because emotion remains a purely human profession.
Google chose Venice to tell how he sees the future of creative work, and he did so with a concrete announcement. During the Biennale Cinema 2026 the company presented a new chapter of the “AI Works for Italy” program, designed for fnow up to 2,500 cinema professionalsmusic and information through joint funding with the Digital Republic Fund.
A 1.3 million fund to leave no one behind
Google.org offers one million dollars, to which is added up to half a million euros from the Digital Republic Fund: a total commitment of over 1.3 million euros. The objective is to retrain those who risk being excluded from the digital transition, with workshop paths built together with a committee that includes the Ministry of Culture, SIAE, ANICA and Confindustria Radio TV.
The courses will start in 2027with a basic AI literacy module and vertical practical workshops on cinema, music and information.
The numbers that dismantle the fear of replacement
An independent global studio signed up is behind the announcement Public Firstwhich estimates a potential impact of over 920 billion dollars in GDP additional by 2035 thanks to generative media, of which over 100 billion directed towards cinema, music, design and gaming.
In Italy, where the creative sector is already worth 112 billion euros and employs 1.5 million people in almost 289,000 companies, AI could generate up to 11 billion euros in additional GDP And 44,000 new jobs net. One of the most curious data concerns cultural exports: automatic translation tools could increase the international visibility of Italian-language content by up to 540%.
Technology adapts to humans, not the other way around
The political point, however, is another, and that is the one on which Google insists more, that is artificial intelligence was not created to replace those who createbut to work alongside him. Melissa Ferretti Peretti, Vice President and Country Manager of Google Italy, explains it well: «Google truly believes that technology should not be dropped from above and, above all, it should not replace those who create. On the contrary, we believe that it should be a tool at the service of creativity.”
It’s not a convenient slogan. Tools like Veo, for video generation, and Lyria, for music composition, have been developed together to over one hundred artists, directors and musicians, inside an internal laboratory called In the Studio, where engineers and creatives have been working side by side since 2022.
The idea, the emotion, the gesture: that remains human
F moves in the same registerFrancesca Mortari, Director YouTube Southern Europewhich delves into the difference between assisting and replacing: «That intuition, that spark you have, is purely human. Then perhaps you may need to develop it more efficiently, or to be stimulated and helped, and this is part of the role of the tools we make available.”
It is a fundamental step. An algorithm can optimize a process, but he has no conscience or emotionsand therefore cannot decide what to tell nor why doing so should matter to anyone.
Mortari says it bluntly: «The idea will always remain absolutely human. The emotion you have to build must start from those who know how to create emotions and realize them.” And he adds a detail that serves as a manifesto: YouTube’s AI tools «we never create them just for the creators or just for the industry, but with the creators and the industry, in collaboration, because it is the technology that must adapt to the creative human being, not the other way around».
From Venice to YouTube, Italian cinema is looking for new audiences
The same setting hosted another piece of news that closes the circle: the birth of the Rai Cinema YouTube channel. The objective of the actors involved is to create an editorial space dedicated to short films, original series and content from international festivals, designed to bring new generations closer to Italian cinema through digital languages.
A piece that tells well about the direction taken by the entire sector, where platforms, studios and institutions try to move together instead of in no particular order, with AI as a tool and not as a substitute for the people who really make cinema.
The fear of many professionals and the public remains, but technology in cinema has always played a fundamental role and AI represents only a logical and linear consequence. Artificial intelligence will not be able to replace either talent or the specific skills that underlie the emotions that cinema is able to provide. Nor even the essential role of those who walk on the red carpet, irreplaceable catwalk charming and professional.
