“Odyssey” director Christopher Nolan describes artificial intelligence as a “Trojan horse”

Christopher Nolan, the Oscar-winning director whose remake of “The Odyssey” is currently topping the box office, said it was “very encouraging” to see deep skepticism about artificial intelligence, especially from young people.

Nolan was responding to a question from interviewer Hugo Travers, who posts on YouTube under the name HugoDécrypte. Travers spoke about the mythical Trojan Horse, which plays a key role in Nolan’s film – just as the horse was a gift to hide murderous Greek invaders, he wondered whether artificial intelligence might be something you “welcome into your everyday life” and then see transformed into “something else and something darker”.

“I think AI is the Trojan horse that everyone knows the Greeks are inside,” Nolan replied with a laugh. He later described this technology as a “transparent horse made of glass.”

“I have never seen technology advance so quickly [that’s been] “It is completely rejected by the public. Everyone’s skepticism about it is very extreme, especially young people,” he said. The reaction to AI videos online and people my kids’ age immediately call it ‘AI slop’ and coin the term and put it in a box.”

In Nolan’s view, this is “a very healthy skepticism, because technology will always give us great gifts, she says, but it should be viewed with skepticism.” Likewise, he said, “The motives of the people who provide us with this technology should also be viewed with suspicion. Then we will get the best out of the new technology, rather than just blindly believing that everything will be fine.” (Meanwhile, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been posting angrily about the film’s non-white, transgender crew members.)

Nolan did not elaborate more specifically on what he sees as a threat from AI, but the technology has been a growing source of concern in Hollywood and was a major focus during the 2023 writers and actors strike. The Directors Guild of America, where Nolan is president, also won some protections for AI in its most recent contract.

The director is known for his resistance to other technologies, including smartphones; His embrace of film can make him seem like a Luddite and a pioneer at the same time, as “The Odyssey” became the first feature film to be shot entirely on film and Imax cameras.

When Nolan was recently asked by the New York Times if he considered himself a technophobe, he replied, “I consider myself a technoskeptic,” and said his love of the film comes from the fact that it is “better at representing the way the eye sees the world than any digital imaging system I’ve seen.”

“I embrace new technology all the time, but it tends to sell it to people at the expense of systems that might still be valid and viable,” Nolan said. “That’s what I’ve seen in my industry – throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We almost lost the movie!”