George Lucas Is Latest and Least-Surprising Director To Praise AI

I took my kids to see Minions & Monsters earlier this week, and we had a wonderful time. The latest entry for those little yellow guys is a love letter to movies that packs in so many homages to Hollywood’s storied past that I lost count. There were plenty of jokes and action for my children, and plenty of gags and references that went right over their heads (as is tradition). For instance, right in the beginning, we’re shown a tour of a film museum, and on display is none other than director George Lucas, who hilariously asks to be released from his small glass display case but is not allowed to leave.

It was pretty funny! And I would have assumed that it was the only time I’d think about Lucas this week. I was wrong! According to Variety, the Howard the Duck producer recently told the outlet The Rabbit’s Foot that AI is here to stay, and finding against that is silly. “Artificial intelligence means it’s much easier for us to make movies,” Lucas explained. “It’s very much like sitting here saying, ‘Well, I believe the horse and the buggy is really where it’s at. These cars, they break down, they need gas, there’s all kinds of problems with them and pretty soon they’ll be making them into tanks, and then they’ll be killing people. It’s terrible.’ There’s nothing you can do about it. That’s progress, it’s the future.”

First and foremost, cars suck. We’re just forced to rely on them. Walkable cities/towns and public transportation are where it’s at, and cars (and lobbyists) stand in the way of that. But anyway! Lucas went on to say some more stuff, like, “If you want AI that tells you when something is fake and where it came from, AI can do that. 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. Whatever you do, you should be recognized. It’s just like real life.” Okay, George.

Lucas loving AI is not surprising. Yes, he’s responsible for creating entire worlds that have captured the imagination of generations, but he’s also notorious for using heaping helpings of CGI and blue screen. I remember Vince Gilligan telling an anecdote on WTF with Marc Maron about Lucas hearing that Gilligan still preferred to shoot on film over digital, and the older director ended up lecturing him about why shooting digitally is simpler and more cost-effective.

The annoying thing is that AI is not going to take George Lucas’s job, so he doesn’t have to worry about the broader implications. This idea that Artificial Intelligence is going to be a boon for creatives is nonsense. What’s more important is that studios will use it as an excuse to hire fewer people. They’ll cut corners, employ robots, and they’ll push film and television away from being big, collaborative projects to just being two or three people who decide everything.

Also, the inevitability thing is horses***. People were saying the same thing about 3-D, which is how my kids and I actually saw Minions & Monsters. Despite being hailed as the next evolution of film a little over a decade ago, it’s barely advanced, and the only reason we chose it is that it was in a less-packed theater than the standard showing. People are plenty smart. They can tell when things are being done as a shortcut and will respond better to original, artful ideas. Which is why one of our most popular articles for over a month has been about Backrooms.