Oscar-winning director Gore Verbinski said he’s “troubled” with the course generative artificial intelligence is on, saying the technology is lopsidedly focused on stripping humanity of its desire to engage with the arts rather than solving tangible real-world problems.
The filmmaker, who is behind the anticipated sci-fi action-comedy Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, told Dexerto he believes AI is “inescapable. It’s coming. It’s inevitable. I’m both apprehensive and excited, [but] it’s terrifying at the same time, and I think the title of our film is sort of a mantra right now. You can either ignore it, or you can be afraid of it, or you can surf it.”
He continued, “This is a revolution, but it’s not windmills or the steam engine or personal computers. This thing is a digital organism that we’re birthing, and I think it’s inheriting some of our primal flaws in its source code.”
Speaking more specifically about the usage of AI in the filmmaking process, Verbinski — whose last pic, A Cure for Wellness, was released nearly a decade ago — questioned why the tech needs to come at a cost to artists.
“Instead of trying to solve cancer or take us to Mars or these things that could solve some genuine issues, it’s going after storytelling, it’s going after illustrations, it’s gonna write your song for you. It’s like saying it’s gonna breathe for you, it’s gonna fuck for you. It’s gonna take away … There’s certain things we need to do as humans, like sit around a campfire and tell each other stories. Why is it taking away the things that make us most fundamentally human? Why not go after the jobs we don’t want to do?” the Rango helmer said.
When asked where he believes the invention is headed, he responded: “I think there’s no doubt that you’re going to be able to go, ‘I want to watch a movie, surprise me. I want to watch a movie that’s, you know, The Godfather with talking frogs,’ and it’s gonna be there, it’s gonna be good, there’s no doubt. But what did it just take away? Isn’t there something in us that makes us want to create whatever you love? You love fly fishing, it’ll fly fish for you. ‘No, I mean, I want to go fly fishing!’ I think it’s weird to take away what makes us human.”
Eventually, the Pirates of the Caribbean director theorized, AI would run into learning limitations, with large language models having to be trained on previous iterations of AI outputs and consequently regurgitating a worse product.
“I think maybe there’s gonna be something really interesting happening, because it’s ingested so much from the Internet, and it’s spitting back so much stuff, so fast, back into the internet, that it’s starting to drink its own piss, and I think you’re gonna see that sort of two degree little turn,” he said. “It’s gonna get quite surreal, really quick. I want to buy an Encyclopedia Britannica pre-AI, to just have. Like, we used to know this shit!
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die — written by Matthew Robinson — follows a man from the future (Sam Rockwell) who travels to the past to recruit a group of hapless Angelenos at a diner (the iconic Norms) in the fight against AI armageddon. Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz and Juno Temple also star.
The film, for which you can view the trailer here, will bow in theaters Feb. 13, moved back a couple of weeks after its initial Jan. 30 slated release.
Hollywood has been locked in a tense stalemate on the usage of AI in the filmmaking process, with stories about artificial intelligence “actress” Tilly Norwood (and ensuing backlash), launch of AI-powered platform Showrunner, Natasha Lyonne’s forthcoming AI-supplemented directorial debut, among many others, dominating the discourse. Factions have emerged dividing creators, writers, directors and producers firmly into pro and con camps. Among those in the latter camp with Verbinski are Frankenstein director Guillermo del Toro and Pluribus creator Vince Gilligan, who told Deadline recently he believes AI is a “detriment” to human creativity.
