Why Gen AI Video and Images Won’t Be Used in Movies

No one confused early Sora demonstrations with art, but what startled filmmakers is these semi-professional and quasi-lifelike images introduced a doomsday scenario: Studios will use this rapidly evolving tech to replace them.

It’s a pervasive fear — with the notable exception of those filmmakers who are early adopters of generative artificial intelligence tools.

Over the last three weeks, I spoke to dozens of film and television creatives who use AI-based software programs like Midjourney, Adobe Firefly, Runway, and Stable Diffusion. They’re excited by the tools and their applications — but they also see their massive and inherent limitations.

“It’s a fraught time because the messaging that’s out there is not being led by creators,” said producer Diana Williams. A former Lucasfilm executive who is now the CEO and co-founder of Kinetic Energy Entertainment, she spoke at the 2024 SXSW panel “Visual (R)evolution: How AI is Impacting Creative Industries.” (You can listen to the audio at the link.) “It’s really being led by the business people and by publicly owned companies.”

Some filmmakers who are most familiar with the power of AI image generation view the technology as yet another disruption that alters the workflow of how humans create motion pictures.

“Every five years to almost every decade, something new comes in,” said Julien Brami, a creative director and VFX supervisor at Zoic Studios, who spoke on the panel…