{"id":69294,"date":"2023-09-22T19:47:46","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T19:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geels.net\/?p=69294"},"modified":"2023-09-22T19:47:46","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T19:47:46","slug":"i-dont-think-ai-is-the-enemy-the-hollywood-director-who-used-chatgpt-to-see-what-would-happen-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geels.net\/beauty\/i-dont-think-ai-is-the-enemy-the-hollywood-director-who-used-chatgpt-to-see-what-would-happen-next\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I don\u2019t think AI is the enemy\u2019: The Hollywood director who used ChatGPT to see what would happen next"},"content":{"rendered":"
By <\/span>Michael Idato<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.<\/p>\n If timing is the key to successful storytelling, then The Creator<\/em> is onto something right out of the gate. Set on a bleak, war-torn future earth, it is the story of a war between humanity and a civilisation of artificial intelligence that has sprung up in its midst.<\/p>\n We sit down to talk about the film with director Gareth Edwards in the middle of a long and brutal strike by Hollywood\u2019s writers and actors over that very issue \u2013 the impact AI will have on filmmaking. Can we solve the thorny topic of AI and its impact on film commerce in a 20-minute conversation? Not likely.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Madeleine Yuna Voyles as Alphie.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>20th Century Studios<\/cite><\/p>\n But we can establish that understanding AI is not as simple as good guys and bad guys, even if that has been Hollywood\u2019s preferred shorthand for storytelling ever since the perpetually doomed star of The Hazards of Helen<\/em> was first tied to the train tracks by a moustache-twirling villain.<\/p>\n And Edwards does offer one illuminating anecdote from the film\u2019s development: he has tinkered with the AI engine ChatGPT and at one point typed in the first scene of the movie and asked it to predict what would happen next.<\/p>\n \u201cIt gave me four things it thought would happen and one of them was totally correct,\u201d Edwards says. \u201cAnd it was like, either I\u2019m really predictable or this stuff\u2019s super fascinating. It is very censored at the moment, and it keeps reminding me that it doesn\u2019t have an opinion about anything. It feels like you\u2019re talking to someone who\u2019s got some boss that\u2019s telling him to shut up every time you nearly get to something interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n The film has taken five years \u2013 give or take a few months \u2013 to get from script to screen. And despite the stunning timing \u2013 premiering at a time when AI is very much in the centre of the national, and international, conversation \u2013 neither the studio (Disney-owned 20th Century Fox) nor Edwards could have seen it coming.<\/p>\n In truth, he originally intended The Creator<\/em> to be a parable about \u201cthe other\u201d, the culture of fear that is often created between communities and outsiders, such as refugees or migrants. In the film\u2019s story, the world has divided between \u201cthe west\u201d, which has banned AI, and \u201cthe east\u201d, which has allowed it to flourish.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Madeleine Yuna Voyles and director Gareth Edwards on the set of The Creator. <\/span>Credit: <\/span>20th Century Studios<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was writing this, it was five years ago, so [AI] was this far away distant thing like flying cars or living on the moon,\u201d Edwards says. \u201cI was only using robots and AI as a metaphor. Then while we were filming I got a text off a friend about the Google\/AI whistleblower. That was kind of mind-blowing. This thing felt like it was really alive.\u201d<\/p>\n The Creator<\/em> stars John David Washington as Joshua, a hardened ex-special forces agent who is recruited on a mission that might reunite him with his missing wife, Maya (Gemma Chan). The target is an AI-developed super-weapon, a six-year-old AI girl named Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles). The film also stars Allison Janney as Colonel Jean Howell, the mission commander, and Ken Watanabe, as an AI simulant named Harun.<\/p>\n Edwards co-wrote the film\u2019s screenplay with Chris Weitz based on an idea formed in pre-pandemic, pre-AI America, while driving through the country\u2019s Midwest on a road trip with his girlfriend after he had finished work on Star Wars: Rogue One<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n John David Washington as Joshua in The Creator.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>20th Century Studios<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cIt was a three- or four-day drive through amazing landscapes, we were going through all the farmlands and I just looked out the window, there was music playing, probably Hans Zimmer or something, and then, in all this tall grass, there was a factory. And I thought, \u2018I wonder what they\u2019re doing in there?\u2019 And my brain went, \u2018Probably robots, right? Japan\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n From there, Edwards found himself imagining a robot produced in the factory ending up outside for the first time. \u201cYou would see the grass and the sky, and you\u2019d be like, oh my God, what is this? And I thought, that\u2019s a nice little moment in film, probably never a movie I\u2019m going to make.\u201d<\/p>\n And then he did. The 48-year-old British filmmaker cites a complex bibliography of influences on the film\u2019s world-building: Joseph Conrad\u2019s Heart of Darkness<\/em>, Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s Apocalypse Now<\/em>, Blade Runner<\/em>, Akira<\/em> and even E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial<\/em>.<\/p>\n But there are some filmmaking influences that might not seem so immediately obvious, such as Paper Moon<\/em>, the 1973 comedic road movie based on the 1971 novel Addie Pray<\/em>. Set in Kansas and Missouri during the Great Depression, it follows a conman Moses Pray (Ryan O\u2019Neal) who teams up with an orphaned girl, Addie (O\u2019Neal\u2019s real-life daughter Tatum).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AI soldiers in a scene from The Creator.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>20th Century Studios<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cI watched Paper Moon<\/em> and tried to study it because there are story beats that go on in there that are really interesting, that are useful for me in this movie,\u201d Edwards says. \u201cThe same with Rain Man<\/em>, and A Perfect World<\/em> with Kevin Costner.\u201d<\/p>\n Edwards also cites \u201ca movie that never gets talked about enough in my opinion because it\u2019s a work of genius\u201d, Baraka,<\/em> as an inspiration because of the way it frames South-East Asia. (Directed by Ron Fricke, Baraka<\/em> is a documentary with no narrative or voice-over which captures events in 24 countries on six continents over a 14-month period.)<\/p>\n Baraka<\/em>, Edwards says, is also an \u201cepic, as-if-God-made-a-film kind of objective view of the whole world. I used to always watch that when I was at film school and just go, \u2018Oh my god, if this somehow had sex with Star Wars<\/em>, [the offspring] would be the greatest movie of all time.\u2019 So that always haunted me when I was trying to figure out this film.\u201d<\/p>\n Edwards was as good as his word. In a Baraka<\/em>-inspired journey, the crew of The Creator<\/em> travelled more than 16,000 kilometres to 80 locations in eight countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal, Japan and Indonesia. They also filmed on a handful of sets in a Los Angeles sound stage and in London\u2019s Pinewood Studios. (Some sequences, shot using ILM StageCraft, were overseen by Australian cinematographer Greig Fraser, who also co-produced the film.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Gareth Edwards directing the Star Wars film Rogue One.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Lucasfilm<\/cite><\/p>\n A slightly unconventional approach for a science fiction film, the purpose of so much location filming was to avoid having to create the film\u2019s environments artificially, via special effects.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s way easier than doing it all against green screen because when you do it against green screen and blue screen, you\u2019re just putting off the problem,\u201d Edwards says. \u201cAt some point in post-production you\u2019ve got to create that whole world, and it\u2019s a nightmare. So, we were like, let\u2019s go do the whole world, film it and then design it on top, so it was actually way easier.\u201d<\/p>\n In tone and texture, the film is bleak. It gives us a glimpse into a future where the ideology of artificial intelligence has left the world broken and in conflict. It is hardly a scientific or sociological document, but it does come at a time when, culturally, we are trying to make sense of the idea of AI, haunted by a generation of deus ex machina film stories with fairly grim outcomes.<\/p>\n The Creator<\/em> adheres to Edwards\u2019 take-no-prisoners style of storytelling. (This is, after all, the guy who bumped off almost everyone in Rogue One<\/em>.) When I watched the film, it left me genuinely uncertain anyone would make it. And it\u2019s a challenge, particularly for a generation of filmgoers raised on the Hollywood convention that in most action or adventure films the heroes are somewhat sure of surviving to see the end credits.<\/p>\n But it is, Edwards says, a more honest way of telling a story. \u201cLet\u2019s go back to World War II and find someone and get them to tell their story. I bet you a lot of people didn\u2019t make it to the end,\u201d Edwards says. \u201cI want people to feel like you felt. That\u2019s great that they\u2019re like, I\u2019m not sure how this is going to play out.\u201d<\/p>\n A preferable tool for a storyteller, Edwards says, is the bittersweet marriage of joy and sadness. \u201cThat feels more painfully real and correct. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I think films need to be hopeful and feel like they can show you how to succeed, that they\u2019re not all doom and gloom and pessimism.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve watched films like that, [but] you never really revisit them, you know what I mean? And I think the reality is in a real war situation, not everyone is going to make it out. I like the idea people think they know how the film will end or where it\u2019s going based on the trailer, and then at a certain point in the movie they go, hang on a minute, what\u2019s going on?\u201d<\/p>\n Growing up in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, a small town in England\u2019s West Midlands, Edwards might have been as far from Hollywood as a kid could be. The influence on his childhood, and his career, of Star Wars<\/em> is self-evident. But it\u2019s important to recognise Edwards grew up in a rich culture of British science fiction, from the television programs Doctor Who<\/em>, Blake\u2019s 7<\/em> and Space: 1999<\/em>, and the literary works of Arthur C. Clarke, Michael Moorcock, Brian Aldiss and Douglas Adams.<\/p>\n But one writer stood out among the others, Edwards says, reflecting on the impact of John Wyndham\u2019s books on his impressionable young mind. Wyndham penned some of the genre\u2019s greatest works, including The Day of the Triffids<\/em>, The Chrysalids<\/em>, The Midwich Cuckoos<\/em> (adapted several times as Village of the Damned<\/em>) and The Kraken Wakes<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was great about his books is he wasn\u2019t interested in the day the aliens landed, he was interested in 20 years later and how life was going on and [how people] got used to this crazy thing in the world, and you\u2019d have to play catch up,\u201d Edwards says. \u201cYou\u2019d be thrown into this situation and go, wait a minute, there aliens in the ocean? What\u2019s going on?\u201d<\/p>\n What it taught him is the power of fast and immediate immersion in a story. \u201cI love films that begin after they\u2019re supposed to and throw you right in, and you\u2019re in this world scrambling to figure it out,\u201d Edwards says. \u201cIt\u2019s my favourite type of storytelling. Starting at the beginning is always quite a boring place to start.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2008, Edwards won the Sci-Fi-London 48 Hour Film Challenge, where a movie had to be created start-to-finish in just two days, with a short film titled Factory Farmed<\/em>. That win put him on the map, and was followed by Edwards\u2019 first feature film, Monsters<\/em>, which had a cast of two and a crew of just five. The Guardian<\/em> hailed it as \u201cthe bedroom blockbuster that\u2019s the anti-Avatar<\/em>\u201d and Edwards\u2019 an \u201centerprising young director\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Madeleine Yuna Voyles plays AI weapon Alphie.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>20th Century Studios<\/cite><\/p>\n It is unsurprising then that something close to his heart is the democratisation of filmmaking: the idea that for the longest time commercial filmmaking has been the preserve of those able to negotiate multimillion-dollar deals with studios because the industry has always had, in effect, a very high price point for entry.<\/p>\n The effects of newer technologies \u2013 and, in an emerging sense, controversial notions like AI \u2013 has been to open that up. Once upon a time, it took film cameras and a cinema to get a film released. Now it can be shot (and edited, with VFX) on an iPhone and released via an online platform such as YouTube. Suddenly, \u201cthe bedroom blockbuster\u201d has an international audience.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s still a challenge, particularly as the industry grapples with changes to its business models and distribution infrastructure, and we have two unions on strike, admittedly over a raft of issues, but one of those \u2013 and the one getting most of the media attention \u2013 is the idea that AI is the enemy.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think AI is the enemy,\u201d Edwards says. \u201cI think that [for] the last 100 years there\u2019s been these major technological breakthroughs that have had seismic shifts in different industries, like the discovery of electricity, computers, the internet. And it feels like AI is going to be another one of those. Probably up there with the others.\u201d<\/p>\n Edwards is also optimistic AI might one day be just another tool to help democratise filmmaking. \u201cSo you won\u2019t need $200 million to make a movie any more,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you look back at the past, the invention of the electric guitar suddenly meant all these kids in their garages could form bands, and there was an explosion of this thing called rock \u2019n\u2019 roll, and we had this period of time with the greatest music, I think ever.<\/p>\n \u201cIf people in their garages or in their bedrooms can suddenly make films somehow using tools of some kind, and they don\u2019t need to go and talk someone into it and ask for $10 million, you might get this sudden magical, insane period of creativity in film like we had back in the 1970s,\u201d Edwards says. \u201cI\u2019m trying to be optimistic about it.\u201d<\/p>\n The Creator<\/em> is released in cinemas on September 28. Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees.<\/i><\/b> Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\nSave articles for later<\/h3>\n
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