Steven Spielberg will “draw the line” on artificial intelligence (AI) in filmmaking when it comes to replacing creatives.
Using it as a Tool
The legendary director thinks people should just use the technology “as a tool,” and not as a “substitute for the soul.”
Steven, 79, said on the latest episode of siblings Michelle Obama, 62, and 64-year-old Craig Robinson’s IMO podcast, “Where I don’t love AI is where it takes a position, or there’s an empty chair at a writer’s table, and there’s six writers and an empty chair, and there’s a computer in front of the empty chair, and it is the seventh writer.”
“I’m not willing to substitute, you know, because I don’t really believe in its sentience. I don’t believe there is any substitute for the soul. …don’t think that is an algorithm that’s inventible, if there is such a word.”
“I think a computer that thinks it feels more than we feel is anathema to the way I was raised and how I’ll practice my own trade of producing and directing in the future.”
The A.I. Artificial Intelligence creator continued, “I don’t want AI involved in that way. If AI wants to help me find locations, that’s great. Saves us all a lot of legwork.”
Nothing Creative
“But don’t tell me that I don’t have the right antagonist in this movie. Don’t tell me how to write my dialogue for this character. Don’t tell me where the camera has to go. And also don’t tell me what the set should look like, unless AI is simply a tool in a large tool chest of the production designer and just one of many tools the production designer uses…”
“Use AI as a tool, but do not use AI as the final word on anything creative. That’s where I draw the line.”
Steven – who thinks AI can be effective to “create and find solutions to medical issues” – currently refuses to give an overall judgement of the technology.
The Jaws mastermind explained, “Well, I’m kind of withholding judgment on AI until I see really how it is being used.”
Others Speaking Out
Steven is one of many in Hollywood who have spoken out about how AI should be used in filmmaking.
In October, Guillermo del Toro, 61, said he would “rather die” than use generative AI in his flicks.
The star said on an episode of NPR’s Fresh Air podcast, “AI, particularly generative AI, I am not interested, nor will I ever be interested. 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 and said, ‘What is your stance on AI? My answer was very short. I said, ‘I’d rather die.'”
But when it came to AI informing his version of Frankenstein, Guillermo admitted, “It did, and it didn’t.”
“It didn’t in the sense that my concern is not artificial intelligence but natural stupidity. I think that’s what drives most of the world’s worst teachers. But I did want to have the arrogance of Victor be similar in some ways to the tech bros, you know?
He added, “He’s kind of blind, creating something without considering the consequences, you know? And I think we have to take a pause and consider where we’re going.”