Sir Christopher Nolan reacts to young generation’s ‘wholesale dismissal’ of AI ‘slop’
Sir Christopher Nolan has praised young people for rejecting AI “slop.”
The Odyssey filmmaker is hopeful for the future of cinema after seeing the likes of Obsession director Curry Barker and Backrooms‘ Kane Parsons reject artificial intelligence in favour of practical effects, and has seen first hand in his own four children that the younger generation are not impressed by all elements of the technology.
He told The Telegraph, “I’ve never seen a more rapid wholesale dismissal of a supposedly foundational jump in technology in my lifetime.”
“So much energy has been expended on bringing in AI, but if you look at that generation’s reaction, they’re utterly rejecting it,” Nolan added.
Of his own kids, he revealed, “Their judgment of AI slop has been immediate and harsh. They see it for what it is very quickly – and it’s much easier for them to identify it, because it grew out of an online world they know really well.”
Nolan continued to explain, “And while that doesn’t mean that every aspect of the technology is useless or meaningless, in film-making it’s hitting at exactly the wrong time.
“After years of driving towards heavily virtual environments, we’re seeing a renewed interest in more tactile, more real forms of storytelling,” he mentioned, opening up about his observation.
Christopher is excited about the future of film with the rise of a new generation of directors as he said, “I think cinema is vital and essential and continues to transform itself – we’ve got all these great new young voices in movies, making the medium their own and moving it forward.”
Fellow director Guillermo del Toro recently spoke of his fears that AI is leading the world on the verge of “cinema illiteracy.”
Speaking at a BFI America event last month, he warned, “We are on the verge of image illiteracy. We are on the verge of cinema illiteracy,” adding, “The pact between man and image is sacred, but we are in a time when that is in danger.
“We are told images can be generated by artificial means. The existence of an image is not just to be there. It is to connect us, to make us feel beauty,” Guillermo del Toro explained as he concluded his point of view.
