Tim Burton is worried that AI “takes something from your soul”

Tim Burton has been talking about the threat of AI, calling it “disturbing” and worrying that the technology “takes something from your soul.”

Tim Burton is an artist who oversees every aspect of his work. If you believe in “auteur theory,” then Burton is just that, with his film’s strange, unique, and immediately identifiable.

Having started out working on traditional animated movies for Disney, he made his directorial debut with Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, put his own twisted spin on the Batman mythos, and crafted the likes of Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride, and more recently, the TV series Wednesday.

When watching one of his films, there’s little doubt it’s a Tim Burton movies. Which is why he’s freaked out by AI renditions of his work.

Tim Burton worried that AI “takes something from your soul”

When asked about a recent Buzzfeed article that used the technology to make ‘Tim Burton’ versions of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, Burton told The Independent: “They had AI do my versions of Disney characters! I can’t describe the feeling it gives you. It reminded me of when other cultures say, ‘Don’t take my picture because it is taking away your soul.’”

The paper reports that Burton was impressed with the artistry, calling several of the images “very good.” But also that it gave him something of an existential crisis.

“What it does is it sucks something from you,” Burton explains. “It takes something from your soul or psyche; that is very disturbing, especially if it has to do with you. It’s like a robot taking your humanity, your soul.”

Christopher Nolan and Gareth Edwards chime in on AI debate

Burton isn’t the only filmmaker to be worried about the way AI is being used in all walks of life. While doing the publicity rounds for Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan talked about it in terms of personal responsibility.

Speaking to Wired, Nolan said: “If we endorse the view that AI is all-powerful, we are endorsing the view that it can alleviate people of responsibility for their actions – militarily, socio­economically, whatever. The biggest danger of AI is that we attribute these godlike characteristics to it and therefore let ourselves off the hook. I don’t know what the mythological underpinnings of this are, but throughout history there’s this tendency of human beings to create false idols, to mold something in our own image and then say we’ve got godlike powers because we did that.”

While Gareth Edwards talks about it overtaking plans for his new movie, The Creator. While recently presenting footage from the film, the Rogue One director said: “When we first pitched the movie to the studio, this idea of a war with AI, everyone wants to know the backstory like, ‘Hang on, why would we be at war with AI?’ ‘Well, they’ve been banned because it kind of went wrong.’ ‘But why would you ban AI? It’s going to be great,’ and blah, blah blah.

“It was all these sort of ideas that you have to set up that maybe humanity would reject this thing and not be that cool about it. And the way it’s played out, the setup of our movie is pretty much the last few months, it’s kind of strange. Go see it before November, because that’s when we’re going to be enslaved!”

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