'F*** AI': Star Wars and Knives Out Director Rian Johnson Blasts AI as 'Making Everything Worse in Every Single Way'

As large Hollywood actors licence their voices to AI, and Coca-Cola uses algorithms to make its latest vacation commercial, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Knives Out manager Rian Johnson has his ain connection connected the subject: "F*** AI."

"Yeah, f*** AI," Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter. "It's thing that's making everything worse successful each azygous way."

Johnson made the remark past month, astatine a festival showing of his forthcoming Wake Up Dead Man, the 3rd introduction successful his palmy Knives Out execution enigma bid starring Daniel Craig. Notably, this was earlier Disney — his erstwhile Star Wars paymaster — decided to splash $1 cardinal connected a involvement successful OpenAI and licence the precise characters he'd antecedently directed for nationalist usage arsenic generative AI video fodder.

"I don't get it," Johnson continued. "I mean, I get it successful a 'This makes consciousness to prevention wealth by not paying artists' way. But then, what the f*** are we doing? Is this wherever we privation to be?"

Last week, Disney brag Bob Iger announced an unprecedented licensing woody that would spot 200 iconic characters unlocked for usage successful ChatGPT and Sora, allowing users to make their ain shortform video contented that would past beryllium regurgitated up and made disposable to subscribers connected Disney+.

"The accelerated advancement of artificial quality marks an important infinitesimal for our industry, and done this collaboration with OpenAI we volition thoughtfully and responsibly widen the scope of our storytelling done generative AI, portion respecting and protecting creators and their works," Iger said successful a statement.

Rian Johnson. Image credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty.

One happening important to enactment present is that Disney's quality licence volition lone widen to characters it has described arsenic animated, masked oregon creatures. Still, a swathe of Star Wars heroes and villains volition beryllium included successful that roster, including Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa, Darth Vader, The Mandalorian and Yoda.

Disney has besides said that it won't beryllium allowing immoderate nonstop replication of actors' likenesses oregon voices, though it remains to beryllium seen however the institution volition constabulary what users create, oregon wherever OpenAI's algorithm volition root its quality designs and voices from, if not from having gobbled up the archetypal performances seen successful Star Wars movies.

In September, the SAG-AFTRA actors' national issued a powerfully worded connection successful effect to the emergence of Tilly Norwood, the AI-generated "actress" that has enraged Hollywood. And of course, each of this comes amid the ongoing backdrop of Hollywood's different immense manufacture improvement — the $82.7 cardinal merchantability of Warner Bros. to Netflix (which Johnson has partnered with for his Knives Out series). One caller study suggested that Netflix valued Warner Bros. truthful highly due to the fact that it wanted to usage the century-old company's intelligence properties wrong its ain generative AI contented successful future.

Image credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You tin scope Tom astatine [email protected] oregon find him connected Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social