Legendary Star Wars creator George Lucas has compared filmmakers who resist artificial intelligence to traditionalists who clung to horses and buggies at the dawn of the automobile age.
In an interview with the website A Rabbit’s Foot, the 82-year-old director argued that the rise of AI tools in cinema is inevitable and will ultimately make the creative process much easier. "There’s nothing you can do about it," Lucas stated, framing the technology as natural progress. "That’s the future."
He likened the current resistance to AI to someone in the early 20th century complaining about cars breaking down, needing gasoline, and eventually being turned into weapons of war, while insisting that the horse and buggy was superior.
Lucas is not the only high-profile filmmaker embracing the change. Gareth Edwards, director of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Jurassic World Rebirth, has also praised generative AI, describing it as an incredibly helpful tool for creators.
However, the film industry remains deeply divided on the issue. Christopher Nolan, the director of The Odyssey, pointed out a stark contrast between corporate enthusiasm and public perception. Nolan noted that while investors and Wall Street have eagerly adopted AI, the general public has largely rejected it. He highlighted that younger audiences in particular have coined the term "AI slop" to express their disdain for machine-generated content.
Other directors, like Steven Soderbergh, hold a more moderate view. Soderbergh, who used AI-generated sequences in his documentary John Lennon: The Last Interview, expressed ambivalence. He suggested that AI is neither a cure-all nor the death of cinema, predicting that the current craze might just be a temporary phase.
Beyond technology, Lucas also criticized the modern film industry's heavy reliance on audience testing and focus groups. He argued that letting fan opinions dictate creative decisions ruins the storytelling process, as audiences do not always know what they want until they see it. "That isn’t how you make a movie," Lucas warned, criticizing studios for misinterpreting audience feedback to let viewers effectively direct the film.