Before the Independence Day holiday, Jodie Foster took part in the Aspen Festival of Ideas (sure), in a conversation called “Who Owns the Future of Hollywood.” Part of the talk was about AI and whether AI is going to irreparably harm filmmaking forever. Jodie was in a good mood though, quite optimistic in general. She even pointed out that at least one recent blockbuster seemed like it relied heavily on AI. That movie? F1, the film Brad Pitt starred in last year (after he broke the SAG-AFTRA strike to film it).

Jodie Foster was discussing great movies and how Hollywood has changed in a talk this week, and she brought up Apple’s “F1” as an example of how machines may be altering creativity. During a Tuesday talk called “Who Owns the Future of Hollywood” with former Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton at the Aspen Festival of Ideas, Foster proposed smilingly that the Brad Pitt racing movie seemed like it could have been made by AI.

“I don’t say this disparagingly — how could I? This movie went on to make millions of dollars. But I look at a movie like ‘F1’ and I’m like, ‘F1’ was made by AI,” she said with a laugh at the Colorado event. “Wasn’t it? I mean, the structure was exactly the structure that you would learn in school. The actors say the lines exactly the way it would be written if a computer was writing exactly what would be the right thing for that time. And they were able to dominate the technology to make something big and beautiful and potentially where a lot of the information comes from other places.”

“F1” has grossed $634 million worldwide and was nominated for four Oscars including best picture, winning for best sound.

Several panels at the annual festival discussed the advent of AI and its effect on society, and Lynton asked Foster what she thought the effects of the technology would be.

“AI is one more giant step forward into changing the industry,” Foster said after detailing the changes to the movie business brought by CGI and digital technology.

“The big question is, is it going to replace actors and writers?” asked Lynton. “We do replace people,” Foster replied, explaining how studios save money on crowd scenes by replicating background actors. “We’re getting rid of a lot of jobs and hopefully, things like unions will be able to come in and say, you can use my actor 20 times, but you’re going to pay him 20 times. And I think that’s fair.”

Foster said for “small helpful things” like previz (pre-visualization of movie scenes ahead of production), AI tools can be useful. “What we all would love is that filmmakers would be able to dominate AI, and never lose sight of that.” She gave an example of a dream-like sequence aided by AI in her most recent movie “My Private Life” that she thought was successful, even though the images “made no sense.”

“If we are able to dominate AI consistently over time, we will be able to make things that reflect us, and we can make things better,” she said.

[From Variety]

First of all, I actually appreciate that her perspective is more like “hey, AI is a tool and maybe we can do something with it as filmmakers or maybe not.” I feel like so many pro-AI people are like “it will solve ALL of our problems and make everything rainbows and cotton candy!” As for F1 – I never saw it, but I enjoy Jodie’s remarks. I’m surprised she didn’t say anything about how Brad Pitt’s face looked like CGI too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.