Justine Bateman is never afraid to speak her mind – and if you follow her on social media, you know lately she's been calling out artificial intelligence (AI) in media. But she's not just posting about it, she's taking action.
The filmmaker and actress is the founder of Credo23, a council that reviews films and series that want a stamp to alert viewers no generative AI was used in the making of their production. The non-profit is also putting on a film festival March 27 to 29 next year in Los Angeles; passes are available now.
"It was clear, to me, over two years ago, that AI was going to be part of the demise of of our business," she says over a recent Zoom call. "I mean, there are a lot of factors, but that's definitely (the) nail in the coffin." Bateman is eager to buck the trends of other film festivals, like the Toronto International Film Festival, embracing AI.
Generative AI works like a blender, Bateman says: "If you want it to spit out films, then you put as many films as you can find into the blender, and then you turn it on, and it slices and dices ... it can't function without ingesting millions and millions and millions of pieces of information. It's films, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of films, 100 years worth of films and TV series, and also all of your home movies, and anything you've posted online." She considers it theft.
