AI at Berlinale: Gore Verbinski and Nicolò Gallio Weigh In On Evolving Landscape

“There's so much to talk about,” admitted director Gore Verbinski as a journalist asked him his thoughts on AI during a Berlinale press conference for his competition film Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die. In the film, a man from the future recruits a group of Los Angelenos to help save the world from a rogue artificial intelligence.

“I mean, it's coming," he began. "I'm in meetings all the time with heads of visual-effects studios, actors — everybody’s talking about AI. And then [there's] outside of my world, in geopolitics... I could go on and on, but I do think, fundamentally, I don't want this thing to get in front of the creative process. I think that the more it's directing you specifically toward something, thinking it's helping you, it's also taking away so many aspects of our life that are just human.”

Zazie Beetz, one of the film’s stars, also shared concerns. “I just feel very strongly about AI and about all of the damage I think it is doing to the social fabric of our society, and to our interpersonal relationships,” she said. “I think we need to rally the troops and get people mad about it and do something.”

AI was also a subject at the Berlinale’s European Film Market, with a startups section including companies such as Lux AI, whose Illumina Twin product is aimed at virtual production lighting; Inshorts, a tool for upscaling; and storyboarding tool WeDaVinci. Also at EFM, the tech was the subject of a workshop in the Producers Hub, led by consultant and researcher Nicolò Gallio.

Also Read: ASC to Hold International Cinematography Summit on "Visual Artistry in the Age of AI"

During his introduction to his interactive session, Gallio asked an audience of an estimated 50 attendees about their feelings on AI. Responses were mixed, though most identified themselves as “slightly worried.” A few were more optimistic, saying they were not worried, and some others admitted they were very worried or even angry.

Gallio raised issues such as job retention, saying that with promised productivity and cost cutting, “you cannot decouple that from the lower part of the conversation, which is the bad stuff.

“For example, I want to mention briefly the labor displacement going on at the moment,” Gallio continued. “I always invite every one of us who is working with AI to stop for a second and ask yourself, 'What does it mean if I'm using this tool instead of using my longtime collaborator to do the same task?'”

Gallio challenged the notion of AI as a tool. As an example, he said, “I could do marketing analysis with a chatbot, but I would offload all my skillset to a machine, and then my role would be to revise what the chatbot produced for me. I don't want to offload this strategic thinking.

“Now, people are obsessed about the tools," he warned. "They are less concerned about, 'Shall I use it or not?' I mean, sometimes they don't need AI. They need automation for repetitive tasks. And there are ways to automate tasks without having an agent that takes control of your computer, asks for your credit card, asks for access to your email. So, maybe sometimes we should stop and say, 'Do we need an AI? Or, do we maybe just need to solve a problem?'”

To spark conversation during the session, Gallio asked questions such as:

"What does becoming 'more productive' mean to you?"

"Where is AI saving time and resources in the film value chain?"

"If everyone uses the same AI tools, what becomes the real competitive advantage?" (He urged filmmakers to try more than one.)

"Is AI expanding diversity of voices, or quietly narrowing it?"

"Are we using AI to explore audiences, or to confirm what we already believe?"

As he wrapped up the session, Gallio left the audience with one last question to ponder: "What kind of mistakes are you comfortable letting a machine make on your behalf?"