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‘Odyssey’ director Christopher Nolan calls AI an obvious ‘Trojan horse’
Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan expressed strong skepticism about artificial intelligence, comparing it to the Trojan horse in his new blockbuster “The Odyssey” and praising what he called the “pretty encouraging” distrust of AI, especially among young people. In an interview with YouTuber Hugo Travers (HugoDécrypte), Nolan responded to the analogy that AI might be welcomed into daily life only to turn sinister, saying, “I think AI is a Trojan horse that everybody knows the Greeks are inside” and calling it “a transparent horse, it’s made of glass.” He noted that he has never seen a technology advance so rapidly yet be so completely rejected by the public, particularly pointing to young people coining the term “AI slop” for AI-generated videos. Nolan described this as “a very healthy skepticism” and stressed that “the motives of the people giving it to us also have to be viewed with skepticism.” The director, who serves as president of the Directors Guild of America, helped secure generative AI protections in the DGA’s latest contract. AI was a major flashpoint during the 2023 Hollywood strikes. Nolan, often seen as both a Luddite and a pioneer for his resistance to smartphones and his embrace of film, called himself a “techno-skeptic” in a recent New York Times interview. He said new technology is often sold “at the expense of systems that might still be valid,” adding that his industry nearly lost film entirely. “The Odyssey” is the first feature shot entirely on Imax film cameras.