Paul Schrader slammed for 'offensive' comments about using AI to generate ideas for film
- The acclaimed screenwriter and director, 78, angered many with his shock take
- Offended fans interpreted his comments as calling writers 'lazy' and 'unoriginal'
- READ MORE: Schrader says Martin Scorsese's dog BIT off part of his thumb
Paul Schrader is being slated for voicing his support for AI after he admitted to using ChatGPT for an idea to write a script.
The acclaimed screenwriter and director, 78, angered many after he asked why writers should waste 'months searching for a good idea' when AI can quickly generate 'original' ideas at speed.
It comes as many fear that millions of jobs will be replaced by generative AI in the coming years.
Taking to Facebook over the weekend, Schrader wrote: 'I'M STUNNED. I just asked ChatGPT for "an idea for Paul Schrader film." Then Paul Thomas Anderson.
'Then Quentin Tarantino. Then Harmony Korine. Then Ingmar Bergman. Then Rossellini. Lang. Scorsese. Murnau. Capra. Ford. Spielberg. Lynch.
'Every idea ChatGPT came up with (in a few seconds) was good. And original. And fleshed out.'
Schrader added: 'Why should writers sit around for months searching for a good idea when AI can provide one in seconds?'
Understandably, many were furious by Schrader's comments and even went as far as suggesting that he wants 'all writers to lose their jobs.'
Paul Schrader is being slated for voicing his support for AI
The acclaimed screenwriter angered many after he asked why writers should waste 'months searching for a good idea'
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, one blasted: 'NOTHING "created" by AI is original.
'That's literally the whole point. It steals and amalgamates the work of others and regurgitates it for the lazy to consume as authentic.'
Another asked: 'Why should I bother watch your movie if you or anybody else didn't bother writing it in the first place?'
A third raged: 'This statement p***es me off so much. To hell with AI and all who think it's genius.'
'This is so offensive to writers, artists, and creators,' added a fourth.
'It's calling us lazy, unoriginal, incapable, and so much else. "We don't want original ideas from your minds, writers. We couldn't care less about what you're thinking and what stories you want to tell."'
Echoing a similar sentiment, another said: 'So in other words Paul wants all writers to lose their jobs and remove the human element from films how about NO!'
'It seems to me that he is trying to say, if AI can come up with these ideas, why should writers go through the trouble?' added a seventh.
Social media users were offended by Schrader's comments and slammed him online
'This is so offensive to writers, artists, and creators,' said one of Schrader's comments
'But the thing is, the "trouble" is part of being a writer and creator.'
Schrader who is best known for writing the screenplay of Martin Scorsese's 1976 film Taxi Driver (1976).
He later continued his collaboration with Scorsese, writing or co-writing Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and Bringing Out the Dead (1999).
Schrader isn't the only Hollywood star to have spoken out about AI and where it fits in the world of film.
In November, Ben Affleck went viral with his shockingly 'articulate' take on how he believes that the technology will not replace humans making movies.
The Good Will Hunting actor reasoned that AI will assist with the 'laborious' aspects of filmmaking, which will in turn help bring down the costs of large-scale productions, but that it shouldn't be viewed as a threat to the art.
Speaking at CNBC's Delivering Alpha 2024 investor summit on Sunday, Ben blew audiences away with an impassioned response.
Movies will be one of the last things, if everything gets replaced, to be replaced by AI,' he declared.
'AI can write you excellent, imitative verse that sounds Elizabethan. It cannot write you Shakespeare.'
He continued: 'What AI is going to do is going to disintermediate the more laborious, less creative and more costly aspects of filmmaking that will allow costs to be brought down, that will lower the barrier for entry, that will allow more voices to be heard, that will make it easier for the people that want to make Good Will Hunting to go out and make it.'
