Gullermo del Toro shares his ominous thoughts on the looming threat of AI

AI is seeping into every facet of our lives more and more every day, and now, Pinocchio director Guillermo del Toro has joined the chorus of voices speaking out against the powerful tool.

The issue is particularly contentious right now in the world of cinema and performance as it has been brought up as a point of negotiation in the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. Some studios have refused to rule out the use of AI for future projects. Of course, there shouldn’t be much need to explain why this would be bad for the industry and yet the idea resurfaces time and time again.

Of course, it goes much further than that; AI poses a much bigger threat long term. It’s been the subject of movies and old stories for decades, but the idea that artificial intelligence could eventually wipe out humanity is becoming more and more of a possibility. James Cameron already spoke a little on the topic with The Wrap and del Toro has his own thoughts to add on the subject.

“Unregulated AI. Unchecked. Unreigned and underestimated by anything but greed-  could be the last chess move we make before we checkmate ourselves out.”

His words perfectly encapsulate the problems with how AI is being used right now. There is very little regulation as to how it’s used, furthermore, the incentive for profit is high, there are little costs associated with using an AI but there is potential to maximize profits by removing the creative people behind projects. Just look at how many people were credited for the AI-created Secret Invasion opening sequence.

If the motivation to use AI is purely to make a profit then we’re teaching it greed. Fans of Del Toro took to the replies to express their own opinions on the use of AI in the creative medium with most agreeing with his statement.

“Well said sir!”

“I have hope that audiences will feel how passionless a movie made by AI is. They can already tell with movies that are made just to make a quick buck, they know quality even if they don’t know how they know it.”

“dang ai nerds just want another way to sell nfts”

There is a future where AI can still be relevant. However, the current situation is alienating a lot of people from film and TV. It hasn’t happened yet, but it only seems like a matter of time before we get a whole TV show written and acted by a robot. This over-reliance on AI can only be a bad thing for everyone long term. 

As del Toro says, it needs to be regulated and reigned in before we give robots too much authority and we end up living the next Terminator film rather than just watching it.