Backrooms Director Says He'd Make Generative AI Disappear. Scorsese Is Going the Other Way.
Kane Parsons, the 20-year-old director of Backrooms, told The Australian this week that if he could snap his fingers and make generative AI disappear forever, he probably would. "Creatively, I get no enjoyment from using those tools. It defeats the purpose entirely for me," Parsons said. He went further, describing generative AI as "less like innovation than a symptom of a broader cultural and economic rot." The comments carry weight because of the moment Parsons is in. Backrooms just opened to 81 million dollars domestic and 118 million worldwide, the biggest debut in A24 history and the biggest opening ever for an original horror film. At 20, Parsons became the youngest filmmaker to top the domestic box office, and the 10 million dollar film passed 200 million globally in under two weeks. There's an interesting wrinkle in his position. Parsons built the original Backrooms series as a teenager using free 3D animation software, and the YouTube audience he grew over four years is a big part of why the film opened so large. He also said he's interested in interrogating AI artistically in future projects, using its iconography in his work without using AI to make the work itself. And he acknowledged the technology might eventually help with more laborious visual effects tasks. His stance lands as the industry splits. Martin Scorsese, sixty years into his career, recently partnered with the AI image generation company Black Forest Labs, and directors like Steven Soderbergh have taken a more open view as well. Two filmmakers, two generations, two completely different reads on the same technology. Worth watching how this divide develops as more AI-assisted projects, like Ash Koosha's 2,000 dollar film Dreams of Violets that premiered at Tribeca, keep arriving. Where do you land on this one? Tool worth mastering or threat worth resisting? Drop your take in the comments. But if you want the full write-up just comment "TOOLKIT" and I will send it to you. Excerpt from "The Newbie Wants AI Dead. The Legend Wants It in His Toolkit." by M.N. aka Uncle AI