The new blasphemy in Hollywood is not the use of artificial intelligence (A.I.), it’s admitting that you are using A.I., which is what award-winning screenwriter and director Paul Schrader has done.
“I’M STUNNED,” the 78-year-old Schrader wrote on his popular Facebook page. “I just asked chatgpt for ‘an idea for Paul Schrader film.’ Then Paul Thomas Anderson. Then Quentin Tarantino. Then Harmony Korine. Then Ingmar Bergman. Then Rossellini. Lang. Scorsese. Murnau. Capra. Ford. Speilberg [sic]. Lynch.”
What was it that stunned him? This: “Every idea chatgpt came up with (in a few seconds) was good. And original. And fleshed out.”
Schrader added that he dropped an old script of his into ChatGPT “and asked for improvements.” He claims that “in five seconds it responded with notes as good or better than I’ve ever received” from a “film executive.”
A.I. is “smarter than I am,” he confessed. It has “better ideas, has more efficient ways to execute them. This is an existential moment, akin to what Kasparov felt in 1997 when he realized Deep Blue was going to beat him at chess.”
Then came the blasphemy: “Why should writers sit around for months searching for a good idea when AI can provide one in seconds?”
The response in the comments are uniformly negative. A short sample:
- “Are [you] fucking serious with this ridiculous question?”
- “[H]as A.I hacked your page, pops?”
- “It’s called creative expression and doing the work, you are passionate about, using your heart, soul and mind. Otherwise what you propose is lazy and boring … you would be a typist not a writer.”
To the naysayers, Schrader offered this example of a short treatment generated by A.I. and admitted it made him feel “Jealous. Antiquated. Irrelevant.”
All Schrader is doing is telling the truth. The lifeblood of telling a story — be it a screenplay or novel — is ideas. I’d rather be a lousy writer with great ideas than a great writer with lousy ideas. Telling a compelling story requires hundreds, if not thousands of ideas. Who are your characters? What does their world look like? What kind of life do they lead? What happens to them in the story? What are the plot twists? Writer’s block is nothing more than the inability to come up with an idea.
Ideas are so important to writers that too many of them go to extremes in search of ideas — drugs, sex, alcohol, the underworld…
Writers are so desperate for ideas, that they often plagiarize.
Which is all to say that almost everyone hoping to be a successful storyteller in whatever medium is already using A.I. and will continue to use it even as they condemn it.
A.I. is the future of pretty much everything, especially storytelling. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is not for me to say. But it is what it is, and at least Schrader is honest about it.
So, I asked A.I. for a 400-word Breitbart piece written by me about this same subject:
Title: In Defense of Paul Schrader’s AI Experiment: The Future of Filmmaking
By John Nolte
Paul Schrader, known for his profound screenplays like “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull,” has stirred a debate by using AI, specifically ChatGPT, to generate film ideas. Critics see this as an affront to human creativity, but Schrader’s experimentation suggests a different narrative—one of partnership, not replacement.
This isn’t about diminishing the human touch in storytelling; it’s about enhancing it. AI could streamline the initial ideation phase, allowing writers more time to focus on character depth, dialogue, and plot intricacies. This approach could democratize filmmaking, making it more accessible to those previously sidelined by the industry’s high barriers to entry.
The argument that AI lacks soul misunderstands its role. AI is a tool, like a pencil to a writer; the human artist crafts the story. Schrader’s use of AI is akin to drawing inspiration from various sources, a practice as old as storytelling itself.
Hollywood has always adapted to new technologies, from silent films to digital. Each was initially met with skepticism but ultimately expanded the art form. Schrader’s embrace of AI can be seen as another step in this evolution, encouraging new storytelling methods.
Finally, there’s the ethical debate over originality. Schrader’s method isn’t about plagiarizing but sparking creativity, providing a foundation for human writers to build upon.
In essence, Schrader’s venture into AI-assisted writing should be seen as an opportunity to innovate, diversify, and evolve storytelling, ensuring the heart of cinema remains human, even with technological aid.
I don’t know about Dick Cavett, but it looks like my job is safe for now.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
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