Christopher Nolan criticises the media coverage of AI: “Suddenly it’s a crisis”
Christopher Nolan, whose new film Oppenheimer is released in cinemas today, has offered a deep dive into his perspectives on artificial intelligence (AI). The issue, he believes, has been foreseeable for years but garnered media attention only recently, particularly as it began to encroach on their own field.
“The growth of AI in terms of weapons systems and the problems that it is going to create have been very apparent for a lot of years,” Nolan said. “Few journalists bothered to write about it. Now that there’s a chatbot that can write an article for a local newspaper, suddenly it’s a crisis.”
Nolan’s quotes were shared during a revealing conversation with Wired magazine, where the director expanded on the fundamental problem with AI as he sees it. He warned: “If we endorse the view that AI is all-powerful, we are endorsing the view that it can alleviate people of responsibility for their actions—militarily, socioeconomically, whatever.”
“The biggest danger of AI,” Nolan continued. “Is that we attribute these godlike characteristics to it and therefore let ourselves off the hook. Throughout history, there’s this tendency of human beings to create false idols, to mould something in our own image and then say we’ve got godlike powers because we did that.”
Despite his concerns, Nolan sees potential in AI as long as it’s regarded as a tool and nothing more. “I feel that AI can still be a very powerful tool for us. I’m optimistic about that. I really am,” he affirmed. “The person who wields it still has to maintain responsibility for wielding that tool. If we accord AI the status of a human being, the way at some point legally we did with corporations, then yes, we’re going to have huge problems.”
Nolan’s musings come at a time when AI’s footprint in the entertainment industry is becoming increasingly apparent. Instances include the use of AI to restore an old recording of John Lennon for a new Beatles song and the use of deepfake technology to de-age Harrison Ford for the upcoming Disney film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
When asked about his personal stance on incorporating AI in his films, Nolan described himself as an “old analogue fusty filmmaker”. He prefers to use technology only when it suits his work best, “Like if we do a stunt, a hazardous stunt. You could do it with much more visible wires, and then you just paint out the wires. Things like that.”
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