Knives Out Director, Rian Johnson, Goes Off on AI

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Rian Johnson went off on generative AI. Similar to his friend Guillermo del Toro, Johnson completely admonishes the use of generative AI and believes it is ruining the industry. At the very least, like del Toro, he believes it is having a profoundly negative impact on the industry. Although this sentiment seems to be shared by most creators, there are some who have chosen to embrace the era of AI slop.

“[AI is] something that’s making everything worse in every single way – I don’t get it,” Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter.

Johnson’s anti-AI stance makes complete sense coming from an industry standpoint. Films with AI can only manage a fraction of what actual people-generated films can accomplish. AI is also only capable of borrowing from existing work and can never create its own genuine projects, even if it tried. In fact, this “borrowing” is one of the main issues with generative AI; many of the most popular film and animation styles are being easily replicated without any credit to their original creators.

At the end of the day, for it to be considered art, it should take at least some effort. Yet, it is clear that some studios don’t feel the same way. Since it was an option, Coke has regularly decided to create its Christmas advertisements with AI. The company believes that the ads are of the same quality as they always produce, but many fans disagree.

Unless more directors take a stance similar to Johnson and Guillermo del Toro, the industry runs the risk of being taken over by AI. There is no chance it will ever completely dominate the industry as a whole, but it could heavily remove the people element from some of the most important upcoming projects. This would change the entire medium for the worse and could lead to the phasing out of some media-based content.

Related: Rian Johnson Is Already Formulating a Murder Plot for Knives Out 4