Justine Bateman Warns AI Will ‘Burn Down the Business’: ‘The Structure Will Collapse’ | Video

Filmmaker and AI regulation activist Justine Bateman sounded the alarm on artificial intelligence in Hollywood at TheGrill conference on Tuesday, warning that the technology is going to “burn down the business.”

Going toe-to-toe with Gladstone CTO Edouard Harris at TheWrap’s annual conference held this year at the DGA Theater Complex, the “Violet” director and CREDO 23 film festival founder said that using AI in film and TV will see a loss of jobs — sometimes whole departments — and that when it comes to industry professionals’ livelihoods, “the structure will collapse.”

“All these conversations and all these investment decisions are completely neglecting a gargantuan wildcard – human beings and their decisions,” Bateman said. “For the business in particular? Is it going to burn down the business? Yes.”

She continued, “If you start taking out chunks of duties, maybe the whole marketing department, maybe a camera, maybe all the actors or half the actors, or the crew doesn’t get their days to qualify for insurance because you’re only using them for three weeks instead of 12. Whatever it is, the structure will collapse.”

For Harris’ part, leaning more and more on AI came down to risk capital and risk mitigation.

“One of our concerns absolutely is what are the risks that come when you have an AI system that can broadly have superhuman capabilities,” he added. “Will we get there? Can’t be sure, but certainly when it comes to risk mitigation we need to consider that possibility seriously.”

Moderated by TheWrap business reporter Sean Burch asked if we can expect a two-pronged system going forward – one where studios like Sony and filmmakers like James Cameron are leaning into AI while others are fighting against it. Bateman said it’s happening in other industries and to expect it to happen in Hollywood too.

“It’s like we’re all on a railroad track and now the railroad track is split in two,” she said.

On one path, she says the people who are embracing AI and want to “crush the structure” are doing so “not to make films better, but to right profit margins.” Down the other path are those who want to “continue pushing the art of filmmaking.” Despite the divergence, she thinks they’ll reconvene into something new.

“The art of filmmaking, I think, is going to continue and I think we’ll see after this inferno a new genre in the arts,” Bateman said. “We haven’t seen a new genre in the arts sine the ’90s of any real significance. There’s been some exceptional work of the last 15 years, but for the most part, the focus has just been on generating volume content which is not filmmaking.”

Watch the full panel below.