Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro is no fan of AI.
In fact, for his latest film, a reinterpretation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic novel “Frankenstein,” he says he was inspired by the hubris of the tech sector.
“My concern is not artificial intelligence, but natural stupidity,” he told NPR in an interview. “I think that’s what drives most of the world’s worst features.”
“But I did want it to have the arrogance of Victor [Frankenstein] be similar in some ways to the tech bros,” he added. “He’s kind of blind, creating something without considering the consequences, and I think we have to take a pause and consider where we’re going.”
Del Toro didn’t beat around the bush when it came to his feelings about generative AI.
“I am not interested, nor will I ever be interested,” he told NPR. “I’m 61, and I hope to be able to remain uninterested in using it at all until I croak.”
“The other day, somebody wrote me an email,” del Toro added, saying that it asked “‘what is your stance on AI?’”
“And my answer was very short,” he explained. “I said, ‘I’d rather die.’”
The filmmaker is only the latest high-profile personality in Hollywood to voice their disdain for AI. For instance, Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg told Reuters in June that “I don’t want AI making any creative decisions that I can’t make myself.”
DC Comics president and publisher Jim Lee also said that the company will “not support AI-generated storytelling or artwork at this year’s New York Comic Con.
It’s also not the first time del Toro has spoken out. Last year, he dismissed AI image generators as a pointless way to come up with “semi-compelling screensavers.”
“The value of art is not how much it costs and how little effort it requires, it’s how much would you risk to be in its presence?” he said during a talk in London at the time, as quoted by Forbes. “How much would people pay for those screensavers? Are they gonna make them cry because they lost a son? A mother? Because they misspent their youth? F**k no.”
Despite widespread public backlash, the entertainment industry has embraced AI, announcing everything from AI-generated feature-length films to the announcement of a fictitious AI actress.
It’s a growing crisis in the sector, with unions representing performers fighting for protections against having their likeness or voice be used to train an AI without their consent.
Major studios are also becoming embroiled in major legal battles over copyright infringement, with Warner Bros Discovery joining Disney and NBCUniversal in suing AI company Midjourney earlier this year.
In short, given influential voices like del Toro and Spielberg, publicly and forcefully speaking out against the tech, the brightest and most creative minds in the movie industry likely won’t give up without a fight as AI continues to infiltrate Hollywood.
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