Digital Hollywood: The AI & Entertainment Summit
The Legal Implications: Chatbots & Virtual Human Engagement – Peaking Over the Legal Horizon
The chatbot answered your customer service question. The virtual human recommended a product. Harmless enough. But peer over the legal horizon and the implications become considerably more complex and considerably more urgent. What happens when a virtual human becomes a personal companion — an AI girlfriend, an AI boyfriend, a psychological counselor, a healthcare advisor? What are the liability implications when that relationship goes wrong? Who owns the data generated by the most intimate human-AI interactions ever recorded? In this closing roundtable our panel of industry lawyers — relaxed, candid and unfiltered at the end of a long day — explores the legal frontier of chatbot and virtual human engagement. Data privacy, intellectual property, liability and the ethics of human-AI dependency. The legal horizon is closer than anyone is ready for.
Speakers:
Michael J. Masucci,CyberSpace Gallery, founding member, EZTV, Moderator
Luna Zhang is an independent producer and business development executive specializing in film finance, strategic partnerships, and global sales and distribution. She works across feature films, shorts, and animation, championing meaningful storytelling with a strong emphasis on women’s empowerment and diverse representation. Her work has premiered and screened at leading international festivals, including Sundance, Tribeca Film Festival, the Hawaiian International Film Festival, and the St. Louis International Film Festival. She executive produced and financed a short film "Our Secrets", officially selected for competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2026. In addition to her production work, Luna has contributed as a panelist for many female centric organizations in Cannes Film Festival, speaking on advancing gender equity in entertainment, finance, and empowerment. Since 2023, she has partnered with a veteran film finance executive to support independent filmmakers, going on to executive produce projects with budgets exceeding $100 million. Luna holds an MBA from the University of Southern California and has completed extended studies at Harvard University.
Michael Hollins is the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Creative Production & Emerging Technology for the ¡EXCEL program at the University of Nebraska
Medical Center (UNMC). Previously, he served as Chief Creative Officer for community and arts organizations such as KANEKO and Pottawattamie Arts, Culture & Entertainment (PACE). Hollins holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) in Anthropology, Philosophy, and Film Studies; Master of Arts in Cinema & Media Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); Masters in Public Administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO); and a Master of Business Administration from UNL. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Health Practice and Medical Education Research at UNMC for which he intends to apply his professional experience, academic interests and personal passion for storytelling, technology and community. Michael has kept his connection with the arts and culture sector through past Board of Director positions with the Nebraska Writers Collective and tbd. Dance Collective, as well as volunteer service with Omaha Public Schools, Autism Action Partnership and Film Streams.
Dr. Gregory P. Carpenter, FRSA is a cybersecurity, cognitive security, and advanced-technology researcher whose work examines how emerging systems reshape perception, behavior, trust, and risk. His background spans cybersecurity, biomedical R&D, RF systems, 5G telemedicine, technical surveillance countermeasures, penetration testing, AI ethics, deception, and information warfare. A retired U.S. Army officer with intelligence, SIGINT, electronic warfare, medical service, and space operations experience, he brings a security and human-systems lens to immersive media, including holographic storytelling, virtual humans, and AI-driven volumetric environments that are increasingly interactive, personalized, persuasive, and socially embedded.
Alina Kalinouskaya is a Los Angeles–based performance artist and creative producer working at the intersection of performance, music, immersive technologies, and Web3 innovation. Her practice spans cross-disciplinary projects that leverage blockchain, NFTs, and decentralized ecosystems to create, manage, and monetize intellectual property while fostering global creative communities. Alina currently produces Belarus Vyshyvanka, an NFT-driven digital fashion initiative integrating immersive experiences and interactive AR elements, and Free Belarus Metaverse, an evolving virtual platform designed to unite the Belarusian diaspora through avatars, digital fashion, concerts, live events, and social interaction. She also recently produced Pavuk Live, a benefit art installation and performance supporting Ukraine that featured a curated documentary digital collection presented on Digital Original. A significant focus of her artistic practice is the exploration of holography and emerging immersive technologies. Her performance work Vitruvian Human was presented at UNMC’s iEXCELL Holographic Theatre, demonstrating innovative applications of holographic environments within contemporary performance. The work was also presented at Lois Lambert Gallery at Bergamot Station Arts Center as part of Getty PST ART and the DNA Festival Santa Monica. Alina also opened the EZTV retrospective, Vertical Blanking, at REDCAT with a live performance Black Cat. Her video artwork Transparency Alley was presented as part of The Analog Brain video art series during Getty PST ART and the DNA Festival Santa Monica. Through live performance, digital media, and immersive technologies, Alina explores social issues, human connection, and the future of creative expression.
Rafael Ruthchild is an Emmy-winning producer, currently involved with several startups bridging the media and tech worlds, Rafi enjoys exploring the crossover between new and old media (hint - they aren't that different). Previously, as VP of Scripted Programming for AMC Networks, Rafi oversaw shows such as Better Call Saul, Halt & Catch Fire, Preacher, Lodge 49, The Terror, NOS4A2, and Tales of the Walking Dead. Prior to that Rafi was an executive at Kurtzman/Orci Productions, where he won an Emmy as Producer of Transformers: Prime, as well as working in development on a number of feature projects including Now You See Me and Cowboys & Aliens. He has a past career in politics, working on numerous campaigns at the local, state and federal level including Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Gov. Howard Dean’s Presidential campaign.
Michael J. Masucci is an award-winning American artist and curator, specializing in new media practices, including video, digital, sound and performance. He is a founding member of the seminal Los Angeles-based art group EZTV (www.eztvmuseum.com) and founder of its online museum. He co-founded CyberSpace Gallery, among the world’s first galleries dedicated to digital art, which the Victoria & Albert Museum states “literally put digital art on the map.” Projects for which he has been a principle collaborator included an Emmy-winning PBS doc, as well as being presented internationally at venues ranging from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Getty Center, the Centre Pompidou Paris, Museum of Modern Art (NY), Caltech, REDCAT/Walt Disney Concert Hall Center, the Institute of Contemporary Art (London), the American Film Institute, Paris Disneyland, the University of Helsinki, UCLA, USC, the School of Visual Art, the New School/Parsons, Japan America Cultural Center, University of Nebraska Medical Center, LA Filmforum, Anthology Film Archives, Highways Performance Space, SIGGRAPH, LA Tech Week and at international conferences in topics ranging from Art History, through Cyber Security and onto Transhumanism. He has been featured in a variety of media outlets including LA Times, Filmmaker Magazine, NFT Magazine, NY Post, Right Click Save, the Computer Arts Society, and numerous podcasts. An early producer of hybrid live and video/mixed media performance, he has been experimenting with the early adoption and integration of new media tools into performance and cinematic work for many decades. An arts advocate he co-created DNA Festival, and served as Chair of the Santa Monica Arts Commission, receiving six commendations for his efforts in fostering the arts. He was awarded a Cine Golden Eagle. Masucci holds a law degree as well as certificates in film production, music, graphic design, computer coding, cryptocurrency, AI and mediation/conflict resolution.
