Filmmakers Split on AI's Creative Future

Backrooms Director Kane Parsons Calls Generative AI Harmful While Martin Scorsese Explores Its Creative Role

Kane Parsons, the 20-year-old director behind A24’s record-setting debut for Backrooms, said he wants generative AI gone from creative work, calling it creatively unrewarding and dismissing it as defeating the purpose of art. He acknowledged that AI could reduce effort on some VFX tasks, but argued that meaningful, objective discussion is difficult given what he described as already unfolding harmful consequences. Parsons also framed generative AI as more symptom than innovation, pointing to the growing presence of “AI slop” in everyday visual culture and describing it as tied to broader cultural and economic rot. Rather than using AI to make art, he said he’s interested in interrogating AI as a theme in future projects by using its iconography as subject matter. In contrast, the reporting notes that Martin Scorsese has embraced AI tools through an advisory role with Black Forest Labs, highlighting a divide in how major filmmakers view the technology’s creative role.

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