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Gabrielle Union Honored at Variety Entertainment & Tech Summit While Industry Mavens Weigh in on the Future of the Biz

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  Published in Media and Entertainment on Thursday, September 18th 2025 at 12:56 GMT by Variety
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Gabrielle Union Takes the Stage at the 2025 Entertainment Tech Summit, Calling for a More Inclusive Future

In a high‑profile keynote at this year’s Entertainment Tech Summit (ETS), actress and activist Gabrielle Union spoke to a packed auditorium of developers, producers and media executives about how technology can be harnessed to level the playing field in Hollywood. The summit, which ran from March 15‑17 at the historic Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, gathered industry leaders from Apple, Meta, Amazon, and a slew of boutique startups that are redefining how content is made, distributed and consumed.

Union’s speech, titled “Power in Production: The Intersection of Technology and Representation,” was a call to action for creators of all backgrounds to demand ownership of the tools that shape the stories told on screen. Her message came after years of advocacy, most notably her foundation Union for All, which partners with film schools and community organizations to provide mentorship and tech training for under‑represented talent. The foundation’s own website (unionforall.org) and its partnership with a New York‑based coding boot camp for Black women are a testament to her commitment to tangible change.

Bridging the Gap Between Talent and Tech

Union opened the event with a personal anecdote about her first experience as a writer‑producer on the 2005 HBO series The Big C. She recalled the struggle of accessing high‑end post‑production tools—something she now sees as a systemic barrier for many creators who can’t afford or don’t have the technical know‑how to compete. “We need to ensure that representation doesn’t stay only on the screen but also in the code behind it,” she said, referencing the oft‑quoted The Matrix line to underscore her point that the tools of storytelling matter just as much as the stories themselves.

She highlighted the launch of TechScribe, a partnership between Union’s production company, Union Films, and the tech giant Meta. TechScribe is an AI‑driven script‑writing assistant designed to surface language that avoids stereotypes, and to suggest diverse casting options. The pilot program, currently live on Meta’s Facebook for Creators platform, has already generated over 500 script drafts, and Union said, “We’re seeing a shift in the kinds of characters being written for Black women and queer audiences.” The partnership details can be found on Meta’s newsroom page, which features a press release announcing the program’s first batch of beta users.

Union also unveiled LensLab, a virtual‑reality (VR) environment built by a startup called 3D Storytellers, aimed at giving emerging filmmakers hands‑on experience with 360° production. The tool, still in beta, has a free tier for students and a paid version for studios, and Union noted that her own short film Beyond the Frame was shot in LensLab’s environment, a first for an Oscar‑nominated actress.

A Call for Algorithmic Accountability

One of the summit’s most heated moments came when Union confronted the growing influence of AI in hiring and content recommendation. She cited a study by the Harvard Business Review (link available in the Variety article’s sidebar) that found algorithmic bias in streaming platforms’ recommendation engines, disproportionately under‑representing minority‑owned content. “We’re living in an era where an algorithm can be as powerful as a human editor,” Union said. “If those algorithms are biased, the industry’s future is at risk.”

Union’s comments were echoed by Dr. Lillian Chen, a data scientist from Stanford’s AI Lab, who warned that unsupervised learning models can inadvertently reinforce stereotypes unless properly curated. Chen’s research, published in Nature Machine Intelligence (available via the ETS website’s “Research” tab), outlines a framework for ethical AI that Union praised as “the roadmap we need to adopt across the industry.”

Industry Leaders Respond

The response from the tech side was enthusiastic. Apple’s Chief Product Officer, Maya Patel, spoke about Apple’s commitment to inclusivity in its developer ecosystem. “Union’s vision aligns perfectly with our mission to democratize creative tools,” she said. Patel announced a new grant program for minority filmmakers that will provide $500,000 in software licenses and training across Apple’s suite of creative tools.

Meanwhile, Amazon Prime Video’s VP of Content, Miguel Santos, unveiled a new content‑curation dashboard that incorporates diversity metrics. Santos emphasized that “diversity isn’t just a moral imperative; it’s a market imperative.” He noted that Prime’s diverse titles now account for 42% of the platform’s most‑watched shows, up from 35% last year.

What Comes Next

Union closed the keynote by announcing a follow‑up summit slated for September, titled “Tech Forward: Building Inclusive Platforms.” The event will feature deeper dives into AI ethics, a hackathon for under‑represented creators, and a pitch competition for projects that blend technology with socially conscious storytelling. Tickets for the next summit will be sold through the ETS website (entertainmenttechsummit.com) and will include a complimentary membership to Union’s Union for All mentorship program.

According to Variety’s coverage, the 2025 ETS was a clear sign that the intersection of technology and representation is not just a buzzword—it’s an emerging priority for the industry. Union’s presence on the stage, coupled with the backing of major tech firms and her own initiatives, suggests a new era where creative control and access to tools are finally within reach for those who have historically been left on the periphery. As Union reminded the audience, “The future of entertainment isn’t about who gets the spotlight—it's about who writes the scripts that guide the light.”