The Odyssey looks set to become this summer’s big blockbuster hit, and its director, Christopher Nolan, is busy working the interview circuit. After his comments last week around AI slop and the younger generation’s rejection of the tech, the Oscar-winning filmmaker went one step further in a chat with YouTube channel HugoDécrypte – Grands formats.
When asked about the Trojan horse metaphor in relation to AI, Nolan responded: “I think AI is a Trojan horse that everybody knows the Greeks are inside” (via TechCrunch).
Laughing along with the host, Nolan continued: “I’ve never seen a technology advancing so rapidly, so completely rejected by the public. Everybody’s suspicion of it is so extreme, particularly young people.”
“The reactions [towards] AI videos online, you know, people my children’s age immediately calling it AI slop.. and just putting it in a box,” said Nolan, echoing his earlier comments.
“Which I think is a very healthy scepticism, because technology is always going to give us great gifts… but it has to be viewed with scepticism, the motives of the people giving it to us also have to be viewed with scepticism,” Nolan opines. “That’s when we’ll get the best out of a new technology, rather than just blind faith that everything’s going to be great”
‘It’s a transparent horse. It’s made of glass. Everybody can see what’s going on inside,” the director concludes.
Certainly, the younger generation’s displeasure with their AI-influenced future has been easy to spot in recent months. Viral videos have shown students booing speakers at graduation and commencement events after mentioning AI, and given the uncertainty and gloomy predictions about the world they’ll be walking into, that’s probably no surprise.
Meanwhile, tech luminaries seem only too keen to give us starry-eyed predictions of the wonderful world AI will create for us all. Once it’s had a bit of tweaking, naturally, and the super-duper new versions are here.
Personally, I find it very difficult to disagree with Nolan’s comments. While AI certainly has its uses, the over-enthusiastic rhetoric surrounding it is both tiresome, and at this point, more than a little patronising. Scepticism is healthy—and was also, rather fittingly, majorly influenced by the works of the ancient Greeks. Could I put a better bow on it than that?