Computer graphics pioneer Alvy Ray Smith says recent layoffs at Disney-owned animation studio Pixar "might be the first step” in its 'Disneyfication', as its parent company continues to cut costs in a major restructure.

Pixar, which Smith co-founded with Edwin Catmull in 1986, announced in May that it would lay off 175 staffers — around 14 per cent of its workforce — as it shifted focus away from streaming and back to feature films.

Smith, who no longer works at Pixar, says while he sees the cuts as a financial decision to return the studio to what it does best, he worries that creatives will be pushed out of leadership roles.

“I think slowly, but surely, Pixar will 'Disneyfy'. [The layoffs] might be an example of the first step of that,” Smith tells Information Age ahead of his upcoming speaking events in Australia.

“So far, we maintain our separation between Northern and Southern California, separate managements — everything's separate — we can maintain our culture.

“But all the keepers of the culture have now aged out."

Smith believes any Disneyfication of Pixar would likely see Disney executives who prioritise financial returns being put in charge, instead of creators and animators.

“Sooner or later all those eager, young Vice Presidents at Disney will be trying to find their place, and their little kingdoms," he says.

“The original 40 [founding Pixar employees], we were all creators, we didn't care about the money.

“We were there to make the first movie, and then the next movie, and the next one, and hire the best talent, and get our papers published, and solve all the problems of computer graphics.”

Disney acquired Pixar in 2006 for around $11.1 billion ($US7.4 billion).

At the time, Disney CEO Bob Iger said the company recognised Pixar’s achievements were “in large measure due to its vibrant creative culture, which is something we respect and admire and are committed to supporting and fostering in every way possible”.

Smith said social media comments blaming developments in artificial intelligence for the layoffs at Pixar were wrong.

“Pixar doesn't do AI — that's not the reason [for the cuts] at all,” he said.

“This seems to be a clear financial decision, because if they're not making enough money [with streaming], they cut it out — that’s what companies do.”

Pixar says it will cut its staffing by around 14 per cent. Photo: Shutterstock

'Rethinking’ AI and what’s next

Smith began studying AI at Stanford University in the late 60s when it was a nascent field of research, but left and returned to computer graphics because he did not think AI would advance very much in his lifetime.

“I’m rethinking that now, because it’s looking interesting,” he admits, adding that he is both scared and excited by AI's capabilities and the speed of its improvements.

Part of that excitement is because it remains unclear exactly how AI will impact the future of computer graphics, he says.

“Alan Turing himself in 1936, when he invented computation, proved that you can't know where it's going,” he says.

“We can't know — we can't even tell if a program will stop or not … Human beings are incapable of deducing where it's going. Basically, you ride the train.”

Smith says he sees AI as “a new lever for the human race, that is of major consequence”, and something which will inevitably be misused.

"We are just taking our first baby steps, and we will figure it out,” he says.

“We are at that place where somehow, we have to set up some guardrails.

“Otherwise, I have a feeling we are already being deluged in the US — because it is an election year — with video lies.”

While Smith considers himself to be retired, he now serves as an advisor to VR animation company Baobab Studios in Silicon Valley.

He wonders, in a world of rapidly developing AI and VR entertainment, what might come next.

“Why are we stuck with the movie format or video format?

“There’s just so many other places that images into our brains could go — I can’t even articulate them because we are not there yet,” he says.

“There are a lot of hard problems there are going to keep a lot of smart people busy.”

Alvy Ray Smith will discuss his career in a Q&A event ‘Pixels to Pixar: An evening with Alvy Ray Smith’, hosted by Information Age publisher the Australian Computer Society, in Brisbane on 27 June. Head to the official event page for details.