Apple TV’s latest show, “Pluribus,” has an unusual disclaimer hidden at the end of its credits.
“This program was created by humans.”
This sci-fi drama is the latest from Breaking Bad showrunner Vince Gilligan. And Gilligan, who is writing and directing a new series starring Emmy winner Rhea Seehorn, shared his thoughts on AI in the entertainment business.
“I don’t use ChatGPT because so far no one has put a shotgun to my head and made me do it,” Gilligan told Polygon in an interview last week ahead of the show’s release. “I never use it. I have no ill will toward anyone who uses it.”
In a separate interview with Variety, Gilligan was even more candid:
“I hate AI,” Gilligan told Variety. “AI is the world’s most expensive, energy-intensive plagiarism machine. I think it’s very likely that this is all crap. Basically, AI is a bunch of billionaires whose biggest goal in life is to become the world’s first trillionaire. I think they’re selling bags of steam.”
He went on to describe AI-generated content as “a cow chewing its cud, an endless loop of nonsense being regurgitated,” and sarcastically thanked Silicon Valley tech leaders for ruining the world.
Big tech companies and AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic are all competing to dominate the industry, investing hundreds of billions of dollars to build data centers and attract the world’s top talent.
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As a result, AI is already transforming society, including Hollywood and the broader entertainment industry.
Some major studios, such as Disney and NBCUniversal, have sued AI companies for claiming that their computer-generated images plagiarize copyrighted characters, but most studios already use the technology in some way.
Business Insider recently reported that AI startups and special effects companies are also moving into the industry, promising studios lower production costs and new ways to promote their work.
Despite a months-long strike by actors and writers in 2023 to protest the use of AI in film and television that devastated the industry, some companies inside and outside Hollywood are still experimenting with AI-generated actors and scripts.
However, it may be a while before TV and movie fans see AI actors on their screens. Last month, Business Insider reported, citing data from marketing firm Collabstr, that even brands are becoming less comfortable “hiring” AI actors and influencers.
Kyle Dulay, co-founder of Collabstr, said the decline in brand partnerships with AI companies may be due to criticism of AI’s sloppiness. But Dulay had another theory. AI-generated content is simply not as engaging as content created by real humans.
