In a recent interview, Soderbergh bluntly stated that audiences will see a lot of AI in his new projects, including a documentary related to John Lennon’s last interview. The point of controversy is not that he wants to use new technology, but that this new technology is used on highly sensitive material such as “The Last Words of the Dead.” One sentence is enough to set off alarm bells: Are you repairing or rebuilding?
If you don’t understand, you want to touch it. The newer you get, the more you want to try it?
Soderbergh’s attitude is very straightforward: he is afraid of what he doesn’t understand, so he feels “obligated” to get in touch with it. He also admitted that some colleagues will refuse to use AI, or even hate it, but that is their choice; he wants to get started with new tools when he sees them, and wants to know what it can do. This statement is usually called avant-garde when it comes to technological innovations such as editing and photography, but once AI is used to intervene in real-life material, it immediately becomes an ethical question.
The quarrel about AI is never just whether it is useful or not, but whether it is legal and appropriate.
The core of the current distrust of AI in the film and television industry is not that there is insufficient creativity, but that the boundaries of copyright, labor, and authorization have not yet been clearly determined. What’s more realistic is that AI videos and AI audio still often suffer from unnatural textures, chaotic timing, and drifting details, and even turn real records into seemingly real composites. When you use this kind of tool for documentary, it’s hard for the audience not to ask: Why do you make up for the person being photographed what he didn’t say?
Soderbergh always loves new tools, but AI is not photography equipment!
Soderbergh has been known for his rapid adoption of new equipment and processes in the past (such as using mobile phones to shoot movies), but what caused dissatisfaction among his colleagues this time is that AI is not a “more convenient lens”, but may be a systematic tool to rewrite the rules of creation and licensing. What’s more, AI images have recently been criticized for issues such as uneven quality and misplaced historical details. Some people even pointed out that it is more like a rhetoric and hype than a mature and reliable production method.
In the end, he also left an intriguing escape route
Soderbergh also mentioned in a follow-up conversation that maybe in a few years, people will look back and think that AI was just an interesting stage, and the final use level may not be as high as everyone imagined. This sentence sounds like cooling down, but it also sounds like paving the way for yourself: I tried, and I kept up, but it doesn’t mean I will always rely on it.