Steven Spielberg has spent much of his career turning technological anxiety, wonder, and possibility into— not just cinema— but popular cultural myth. So when the director of “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” weighs in on the current AI panic, it carries a little extra weight.
Appearing on “IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson,” Spielberg discussed the subject while promoting his new sci-fi film “Disclosure Day,” and his position was measured but unmistakable. The Academy Award winner did not dismiss AI outright; instead, he seems to recognize its value in medicine, education, and production logistics. But when it comes to the creative decisions that shape a movie, Spielberg drew a firm line.
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“I’m kind of withholding judgment on AI until I see really how it is being used,” Spielberg explained when asked to refine his stance on AI. “What I do know about AI is that I’m sure it’s a tool that can create and find solutions to medical issues; in finding solutions to how to put together a curriculum and how to get young people really more stimulated and interested in the lessons that they’re being taught in elementary and junior, and high school, and so on.”
The problem, he said, begins when AI is treated as a collaborator instead of a tool.
“Where I don’t love AI is where it takes a position where there’s an empty chair at a writer’s table,” he said. “And there are six writers, and there’s an empty chair, and there’s a computer in front of the empty chair, and it is the seventh writer. I’m not willing to substitute, because I don’t really believe in sentience. I don’t believe that there’s any substitute. There’s any substitute for the soul.”
Spielberg continued, “I don’t think that is an algorithm that is inventable, if there is such a word. And I think that the difference between a computer that’s smarter than people, but a computer that thinks it feels more than we feel, is anathema to the way I was raised and how I’ll practice my own trade of producing and directing in the future. I don’t want AI involved in that way.”
That does not mean the filmmaker is against using new technology to make production easier. Spielberg said AI could help with practical work, including scouting locations, provided it remains subordinate to human judgment.
“If AI wants to help me find locations, that’s great— save us all a lot of legwork,” he said. “But don’t tell me that I don’t have the right antagonist in this movie. 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 and just one of many tools the production designer uses.”
His final point was the simplest: “Use AI as a tool, but do not use AI as the final word on anything creative. That’s where I draw the line.”
“Disclosure Day” stars Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Colman Domingo. Universal Pictures releases the film in theaters on June 12. Check out the full conversation below.
