Natasha Lyonne is pushing back on the internet outrage over the usage of AI in her new film Uncanny Valley.
Lyonne told Variety about her upcoming directorial debut in a recent interview. She discussed how an “ethical” form of AI would assist in some aspects of the production—but not at the expense of the artists who contribute to filmmaking. She said the AI would be trained on copyrighted material.
Of course, the internet did not appreciate the nuance.
AI slop or movie magic?
A Reddit user accused Lyonne of directing an “AI slop film,” and commenters predictably went into a tizzy. “Yeah, I think I just lost a ton of respect for her,” wrote one Redditor.
Another agreed, “I’d rather find out she was a Scientologist or something.”
In the Variety article, Lyonne is unapologetic. She told the magazine that the internet misunderstood the headline regarding AI’s involvement in the film. “Suddenly I became some weird Darth Vader character or something,” she said.
Lyonne is a co-founder of the production company behind the film. On its website, Asteria calls itself an “artist-led generative AI film and animation studio powered by the first clean and ethical AI model. Asteria produces animation, fiction, and non-fiction film and television, all through the lens of a filmmaker-first approach and alongside Moonvalley has built the first of its kind clean foundational AI model.”
The actress even said that the late director David Lynch, also her former neighbor, supported the use of AI in filmmaking. Lyonne shared a conversation the pair had last year with Vulture. He used a pencil as a metaphor for the accessibility of AI—and its inevitable permeation of art creation.
“Natasha,” he reportedly told her. “This is a pencil. It’s how you use the pencil. You see?”
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