Hollywood has long waged a war with generative artificial intelligence, i.e., the “group of AI algorithms and models that are capable of producing new content, including texts, images, videos and problem-solving strategies, with human-like creativity and adaptability,” as defined in a journal article from the National Science Review in 2025. Generative artificial intelligence has often been criticized for using publicly available images, audio, and writing as training data to create its output, which many naturally consider to be stealing human work. There have naturally been notable strikes in Tinseltown over protecting human-created design, performance, or writing, as well as protecting the human jobs and roles that AI threatens to change or completely erase. But, back when the Screen Actors’ Guild and the Writers Guild of America were striking, they were noticeably without their brothers and sisters in the director’s chair from the DGA (Directors Guild of America), so to speak. That’s because DGA reached an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) without ensuring the other parties had seats at the table. So, while the DGA ensured that its members would not be replaced by technological advances, other Hollywood creatives had to pound the pavement and strike. It was a huge story at the time in 2023, and the DGA came under heavy fire for the way they went about it. Now, three years later, individual directors are again making decisions on their own that may have an impact on the entire industry. Though this time around, notable directors are opening the door for generative AI in ways that feel anathema to the collaborative creative processes involved with filmmaking. As if that wasn’t bad enough, we’re not just talking about a few notable directors. Rather, we’re now starting to talk about some of the biggest names in Hollywood. It’s shocking, and we need to talk about why this is happening and what it means both for their legacy and for Hollywood as a whole.
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