When it comes to AI usage in art, there are two likely scenarios: either it will be so seamlessly integrated into our lives that we won’t even notice we’re using it, or we’ll all wonder what the fuss was about.
Paul Schrader seems to bet on the former—he’s all in on AI, even hinting at making a film using the technology. George Miller is in a similar camp, though he faced heavy backlash recently for saying that “AI is here to stay and change things.” Meanwhile, Guillermo del Toro bluntly stated, “F*ck AI.”
One important voice who seems to side with Schrader and Miller is Roger Deakins, whose stunning photography has made him the GOAT of cinematography. At a recent Q&A, he was asked about filmmakers using AI, and his response will surely trigger some backlash:
I don’t think [using] AI is cheating, As long as you have something to say, I don’t care what you use
Art has always thrived on imperfection—the mess, the emotion, the human error—and I’m not convinced any AI can capture that. If anything, it risks cheapening the art itself. That said, what Deakins seems to be getting at is that the tool doesn’t matter nearly as much as the intent behind it. If a filmmaker has a genuine vision, if there’s a real human point of view driving the work, then AI becomes just another brush, another lens, another means of expression. Maybe that’s the paradox we’ll have to live with.