Having earned a reputation for ditching CGI in favor of practical effects in his movies, Christopher Nolan seems to harbor a similarly skeptical opinion about AI in the entertainment industry, citing Disney’s deal with OpenAI. The visionary filmmaker isn’t opposed to integrating artificial intelligence in movies. Yet, he has shared certain reservations regarding the technology and the impact it could have on directors.
Christopher Nolan insists directors need to ‘have a voice’ in how AI is being used
The Odyssey director recently admitted that countermeasures to protect filmmakers from AI have been established. However, they do not ensure complete shielding.
“We have excellent protections, but that’s not enough,” Christopher Nolan said in an interview with Deadline. He then added, “You have to have a voice in how this tool is used moving forward. Also, we like to try and have a voice in, what’s the legal framework? Because we generally aren’t the copyright holders of our work, but our income, our residuals, depends on the appropriate monetization of those copyrights. So we’re constantly in dialogue with the companies about, are you maximizing the value of the work that we’ve created? Because we do benefit from that enormously.”
Despite his doubts about AI, Nolan admitted that the technology could benefit the industry in certain ways. “For example, the deal Disney did with OpenAI. I see that as a positive in terms of establishing the principle of licensing,” he noted.
However, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker still prefers to follow the “wait and see” approach. This is because “how that’s going to be paid through to the union members of all three unions, which, at the moment, we don’t know what that’s going to be. When these companies will have the support of the deals is when they’ve shown how creatives are going to benefit from those kind of licensing opportunities.”
Another aspect of AI that Christopher Nolan believes would have huge ramifications for cinema is the transformation of streaming services into ad-supported platforms. Companies are now leveraging AI to decide when and what advertisements will go live during a movie stream. According to Nolan, “it might seem like a simple business decision, but it has creative rights impacts, huge ones.”
Additionally, the newly-elected Directors’ Guild Foundation President emphasized the need to “guide legal framework for regulating companies like OpenAI.” Nolan concluded, “But beyond that, it’s like, ‘Okay, if they’re becoming distribution platforms, how will they manipulate? How can we have a voice in ensuring the things that we’re passionately dedicated to on the creative side?’”
