Steven Spielberg weighs in on the growing concern over the steadily increasing experimentation with AI in the film industry.
On the latest episode of IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson, Spielberg said that while he is reserving judgment until he sees how AI is being consistently used, the Disclosure Day director is also uneasy about the possibility of AI taking someone’s seat in a writers’ room.
Spielberg seemed certain that AI’s limitations lie in tapping into human emotions.
“I don’t believe that there’s any substitute, any substitute for the soul,” he said at the 1:16:12 mark. “I don’t think that is an algorithm. That is ‘inventable,’ if there is such a word.”
Spielberg believes there is a place for AI in the film industry, serving as a tool to make certain aspects of the filmmaking process easier. "If AI wants to help me find locations, that’s great,” he said. “Saves us all a lot of legwork.” But the acclaimed filmmaker refuses to allow AI to instruct him on how to do his job.
“Don’t tell me that I don’t have the right antagonist in this movie,” he said. “Don’t tell me how to write my dialogue for this character. Don’t tell me where the camera has got to go. And also, don’t tell me what the set should look like, unless AI is simply a tool in a large tool chest of the production designer.”
Spielberg goes on to emphasize the idea of AI being considered a tool, and nothing more.
“Use AI as a tool, but do not use AI as the final word on anything creative,” he emphasized. “That’s where I draw the line.”
In a discussion with Sean Fennessey of The Ringer at SXSW in March, Spielberg revealed he was open to the use of AI in “many different disciplines,” but could not accept a world where it “replaces a creative individual.”
Disclosure Day marks a return to the sci-fi genre for Spielberg, who is known for directing War of the Worlds, Minority Report, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, and, ironically, A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
Following 2018’s sci-fi movie Ready Player One, Spielberg turned his attention to a passion project, an adaptation of West Side Story, followed by the semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans.
Disclosure Day will be in theaters on June 12.
