If anyone understands the film industry, it’s probably George Lucas. Then again, he is the same filmmaker who gave us the Star Wars prequels, Howard the Duck, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Red Tails. Still, when he tells us that AI is the future of film, he couldn’t be wrong again, right?
George Lucas’ Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens this fall. The 300,000-square-foot temple to human-made art has taken decades to build and is meant to house 100,000 paintings, illustrations, photographs and film artefacts. Artworks from Norman Rockwell, Frida Kahlo, R. Crumb and Alison Bechdel will all live there.
And yet… the same creative is now telling the industry that AI is where filmmaking is headed. Worst of all, there’s nothing you can do about it.
“Artificial intelligence means it’s much easier for us to make movies,” Lucas told A Rabbit’s Foot. “There’s nothing you can do about it…That’s progress; it’s the future…”
Pressed on the obvious problems, Lucas doesn’t back off, he redirects. “If you want AI that tells you when something is fake and where it came from, AI can do that,” he says. “Humans can’t, we’re not that smart. The whole idea is you’re a human being, you’re responsible for what you say and what you do, and if you’re doing something that’s illegal you should be punished for that.”
Lucas is 82 years old now and is no longer making movies, although he might still be actively involved behind the scenes. Everything he is saying goes against what many young people are campaigning against. The term “AI slop” has been used to describe any video that’s been made with AI generative tools. But Hollywood doesn’t seem to be listening to audiences regarding the use of AI. There are plenty of studios that are now pushing for the use of AI to make films faster and easier. And every announcement to do so has been met with negativity.
Just today, an AI studio released the trailer for its version of The Odyssey. How well do you think that’s going?
Somebody needs to remind Lucas he wrote the scene where Yoda tells Luke the dark side isn’t stronger, just quicker, easier, more seductive. Easier, the path of machines may seem, but the soul of the story, it steals.
