‘Heretic’ Directors Used End Credits to Warn Hollywood About AI: ‘Let’s Bury It Underground With Nuclear Warheads, Cause It Might Kill Us All’
Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ newest movie, “Heretic,” out Nov. 8 via A24, is filled with thought-provoking discussions about faith and humanity. But eagle-eyed viewers will notice something unconventional in the credits: A message stating that “No generative AI was used in the making of this film.”
While “Heretic” — which tells the story of two Mormon missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) who get trapped in the house of a mysterious man (Hugh Grant) — has limited visual effects, Woods says they felt compelled to send audiences home with this discussion point.
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“We have no illusions that when people watch ‘Heretic’ they’re going to go, ‘Wait, did they use generative AI?'” he says. “It doesn’t feel like that at all, but it was important for us to put that out there because we think it’s something people need to start talking about.”
Generative AI is artificial intelligence that can build images, video, text and many other elements from generative modeling that reacts when given a prompt. Early developments have allowed users to change nearly anything in post-production as well as create whole videos from scratch, and it has been used in blockbusters like “Furiosa” and “Alien: Romulus.”
Woods doesn’t mince words on the tech, defining generative AI as, “an algorithm jumbling a bunch of shit together and then spitting it out as art. It’s not human and it’s borderline theft on some level.
“I think this idea that an algorithm can just scrape all of human history and art off the internet, repackage it, regurgitate it, spit it out and somebody else can use that to create profit … I don’t know why that’s legal,” he continues. “It’s important for people to start talking about the need for human intersection in art, business and every facet of this life, because we’re on the precipice of every job on planet Earth being replaced overnight. It’s going to happen so fast. And it’s easy for it to happen in the arts. We’re in a business that is exceptionally greedy. Decisions are made for the bottom line and not for the good of the artistic process.”
Beck was thrilled that A24, the studio behind the film, stood by this addition to the credits.
“As far as we’re aware, they’re absolutely fine with it,” he says. “They’re a studio that is incredibly artist-friendly in the best sense possible. They’re a home where you feel like you’re working with human beings, you’re not working with algorithms, or ‘How does the test score dictate the rollout of a movie?’ That human touch that they have we absolutely respect, and we are in a time where I feel like creatively we’re in one of the big ethical battles, and the race is already ahead of us. The importance is to have these conversations before they force things in, just because it makes sense from a corporate structure. It’s incredibly dangerous. If there’s not people to throttle it, we’re going to find ourselves in five to ten years in a very dangerous situation.”
The duo’s criticism of AI comes amid increased dealmaking in recent weeks between studios and tech companies, as Blumhouse announced a partnership with Meta to test generative AI filmmaking tools, while Disney established a group to help oversee AI use in a “responsible” way.
Ultimately, Woods understands how this new tech is enticing, but still thinks it’s dangerous to the very foundation of filmmaking. Furthermore, a recent Goldman Sachs study, via the New York Times, estimates generative AI could eventually take over 300 million full-time jobs, and Woods isn’t mincing words about its impact.
“AI is an amazing technology,” he says. “Beautiful things will come of it, and it’s jaw-dropping. What is being created with generative AI and video … it’s amazing we could create that technology. Now let’s bury it underground with nuclear warheads, cause it might kill us all.”
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