Digital Hollywood: The AI & Entertainment Summit
Tuesday, July 21st, 2026
4 – 4:50 PM Eastern Time Zone
Session I: A Virtual Event
The Meme War: Propaganda & Bots vs. Legitimate Satire
The internet didn't invent propaganda — but it gave it a rocket ship. Today's information battlefield is fought in memes, manipulated media, coordinated bot networks and AI-generated disinformation campaigns operating at a scale and speed no human team could match. Yet running alongside this weaponized content is a long and legitimate tradition of political satire, creative parody and comedic dissent that democracies have always depended upon. Where is the line? Who draws it? And when platforms, algorithms and foreign actors are all playing the same game simultaneously, does the line even hold? In this session we trace the origins of malicious bots and coordinated inauthentic behavior, examine the forensics of modern propaganda and ask what legitimate satire looks like in the age of the meme war.
Speakers:
Giuseppe De Lauri, Director/Artist, Creative Strategist, New York University, Moderator
Speakers to be announced
Diana Colella is executive vice president of Autodesk’s Entertainment & Media vertical solutions group. In this role, she manages product, strategy and execution for the company’s portfolio servicing the film, TV and games industries. Colella has been with Autodesk for more than 20 years occupying a range of leadership roles, including head of product management and worldwide support. She has extensive experience in strategically transforming business models, creating new product offerings and optimizing processes on a global scale. Most recently, she served as vice president in Autodesk’s Business Strategy and Marketing group, leading the M&E and AutoCAD businesses, which represent more than $1B in annual recurring revenue. In this role, she drove the company’s strategy for digital conversion of non-compliant users and launched One AutoCAD. She is the executive sponsor of the Autodesk Women’s Network.
