Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan, whose new film The Odyssey is currently dominating the box office, said he was “quite encouraged” by the deep skepticism toward AI, especially among young people.
Nolan was answering questions from interviewer Hugo Travers, who publishes his work on YouTube under the name Hugo Décrypte. Travers brought up the legendary Trojan Horse, which plays an important role in Nolan’s films. Just as the horse was a gift to hide the brutal Greek invaders, he wondered if AI would be “welcomed into everyday life,” but it would become “something different, something darker.”
Nolan laughed and replied, “I think we all know that AI is a Trojan horse and there are Greeks inside.” He later described this technique as a “transparent horse made of glass.”
“I have never seen such complete public rejection of a technology that is advancing so rapidly,” he said. “Everyone has doubts about it, especially young people. The reaction to AI videos online and people my kid’s age immediately called it ‘AI slop’ and just coined that term and put it in a box.”
In Nolan’s view, this is “a very healthy skepticism, because as you say, technology always gives us great gifts, but it should be viewed with skepticism.” Similarly, “we must also look with skepticism at the motives of those who provide it to us. Only then can we get the most benefit from new technology, rather than blindly trusting that everything will be fine,” he said. (Meanwhile, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has posted angrily about the film’s non-white and transgender cast.)
Nolan didn’t say specifically what he sees as a threat from AI, but the technology has been a growing concern in Hollywood and was a major focus of the 2023 Writers’ and Actors’ Strike. The Directors Guild of America, of which Nolan is president, also won protection for generative AI in its latest deal.
The director is famously resistant to other technology, including smartphones. His approach to film made him seem both a Luddite and a pioneer, and The Odyssey was the first full-length feature film to be shot entirely on Imax film and cameras.
When the New York Times recently asked Nolan if he considers himself a technophobe, Nolan replied, “I consider myself a technophobe,” and said his love of film stems from the fact that “it’s better than any digital imaging system I’ve ever seen at representing the way the eye sees the world.”
“I’m always embracing new technology, but it tends to be sold to people at the expense of systems that are still valid and workable,” Nolan said. “That’s what I see in my industry. They throw the baby out with the bath water. I almost lost the film!”
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