βThatβs progressβ β¦ George Lucas. Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty View image in fullscreen βThatβs progressβ β¦ George Lucas. Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty George Lucas likens AI sceptics to luddites clinging to horses and carts Star Wars director calls AI technology βthe futureβ of film-making and says βthereβs nothing you can do about itβ The Star Wars director, George Lucas , has added his voice to the growing chorus of film-makers receptive to the rising use of AI tools in moviemaking. Speaking in an interview with A Rabbitβs Foot , Lucas, 82, said: βArtificial intelligence means itβs much easier for us to make movies.β Resistance to the technology, he said, was βvery much like sitting here saying: βWell, I believe the horse and the buggy is really where itβs at. These cars, they break down, they need gas, thereβs all kinds of problems with them and pretty soon theyβll be making them into tanks, and then theyβll be killing people. Itβs terrible.ββ Adoption of such tools, continued Lucas, was an inevitability. βThereβs nothing you can do about it. Thatβs progress, itβs the future.β Lucas is not the only director of a Star Wars film to have come out in favour of AI. The British film-maker Gareth Edwards , who made Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and most recently Jurassic World Rebirth said generative AI βis a fucking genius at helping youβ. However, there are high-profile holdouts, including the director of The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan, who recently said : βIβve never seen a technology thatβs been so successfully adopted by Wall Street and by investors β¦ that the public has so thoroughly rejected. Young people, in particular, they coined this term βAI slopβ β¦ Thereβs a sort of disdain for things AI.β Meanwhile, Steven Soderbergh, whose documentary John Lennon: The Last Interview includes AI-generated sequences, has expressed ambivalence. βI donβt think itβs the solution to everything, and I donβt think itβs the death of everything. We are in the very early stages. Five years from now, we all may be going: βThat was a fun phase.ββ skip past newsletter promotion after newsletter promotion Lucas also told the website his thoughts on the industryβs use of audience testing and focus groups. βI donβt like focus groups,β he said. βThe audience doesnβt know what they want to see. If they donβt like a character, thatβs interesting, and as a film-maker I want to find out why. But when the studios hear that, they take the wrong message. They let the audience actually make the movie β¦ Now, itβs all about what the fans think. That isnβt how you make the movie.β Explore more on these topics George Lucas AI (artificial intelligence) Film industry Star Wars news Share Reuse this content