The Guide #84: Why movies made by artificial intelligence won’t be the future of film

In this week's newsletter: Surely we go to the cinema to be jolted and discomfited by someone else's ideas - not to see ourselves in easy meetcute rom-coms with Marilyn Monroe

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The artificial intelligence revolution is motoring forward at such a pace that it's hard to keep up with the torrent of news stories about it, let alone the technology itself. In recent weeks we've had AI newsreaders on Kuwaiti TV, an AI-generated photograph winning a major prize, an AI-generated interview with Michael Schumacher that got an editor sacked and, of course, numerous warnings that this all might spell the end of humanity itself.

It's natural to feel apprehensive about these society-shaking developments. (I'm already preparing myself for the inevitable AI writes mildly diverting pop culture newsletter" story.) Even so, the reaction to a recent interview in which Joe Russo speculated on the future of AI-generated film seemed particularly intense. Russo - one half of Marvel-affiliated director duo the Russo brothers - was musing on how generative AI could invent a film catered to the whims of the viewer. Here's his pitch:

You could walk into your house and say to the AI on your streaming platform, Hey, I want a movie starring my photoreal avatar and Marilyn Monroe's photoreal avatar. I want it to be a rom-com because I've had a rough day," and it renders a very competent story with dialogue that mimics your voice ... suddenly now you have a rom-com starring you that's 90 minutes long.