Streaming And Screaming — ‘The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist’
by Tito W. James
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist is a hand-crafted documentary by Daniel Roher (Everything Everywhere All at Once). An interesting coincidence is that Judy Estrin (former chief technical officer of Cisco) wrote an article titled The Case Against AI Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. The documentary gives viewers background on the current AI landscape and what can happen if this powerful technology is misused. This also comes at a time when studio A24, formerly known for distributing unique indie films, just announced a huge AI partnership with Google.
One flaw: the documentary failed to explore the financial stability of any of these AI companies, which could cause massive economic tidal waves if they succeed or fail in their mission. Another glaring omission was that the film never addresses generative AI images, something currently negatively affecting all creative industries. Even with those shortcomings, I commend the filmmakers for giving robust information in an entertaining fashion.
I also commend creatives like Jim Lee, Nicolas Cage, and Guillermo Del Toro for defending human made art on no uncertain terms. I’ve already expressed why publishers should take a hard stance against AI and it seems needed now more than ever.
“I am a big believer in not letting robots dream for us. Robots cannot reflect the human condition for us. That is a dead end if an actor lets one AI robot manipulate his or her performance even a little bit, an inch will eventually become a mile and all integrity, purity and truth of art will be replaced by financial interests only. We can’t let that happen.
The job of all art in my view, film performance included, is to hold a mirror to the external and internal stories of the human condition through the very human thoughtful and emotional process of recreation. A robot can’t do that. If we let robots do that, it will lack all heart and eventually lose edge and turn to mush. There will be no human response to life as we know it. It will be life as robots tell us to know it. I say, protect yourselves from AI interfering with your authentic and honest expressions.”
– Nicolas Cage
