Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro says he will never be interested in using AI-generated video as a tool in his movies, even joking that he hopes to pass away before he develops any curiosity about the technology.
In an interview with NPR, the Oscar-winning director of Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water (as well as popular fare Hellboy and Pacific Rim) likens the “arrogance” of “tech bros” like Sam Altman and Elon Musk (of OpenAI and xAI, respectively) to Victor Frankenstein, the creator of a reanimated human in his latest movie Frankenstein.
Interviewer Terry Gross broaches the subject, searching for a parallel in the story’s para-human creation, played by actor Jacob Elordi, and del Toro shares his doubt that untold levels of programmed information can capture “the alchemy of emotion.”
GROSS: You could say in some ways that, like, the creature in “Frankenstein” is like artificial intelligence, because he’s created by man but then lives on its own and can destroy man, you know, without even understanding quite what he’s doing. So what are your thoughts about AI? And did that kind of inform the movie in any way?
DEL TORO: It did and it didn’t. It didn’t in the sense that my concern is not artificial intelligence, but natural stupidity. I think that’s what drives most of the world’s worst teachers. But I did want to have the arrogance of Victor be similar in some ways to the tech bros, you know? He’s kind of blind, creating something without considering the consequences, you know? And I think we have to take a pause and consider where we’re going. If you have to teach an AI to think in ones and zeros – you know, oh, my God, I would love for a generation to get raising kids right one time, one time.
In the entire history of mankind, there hasn’t been a single generation that was raised right all across the globe. And I think that’s our biggest failure in a way, you know? Ones and zeros don’t get the alchemy that you get with emotion and experience. You get the information, but you don’t get the alchemy of emotion, spirituality and feeling. I’m not saying it’s impossible to replicate. But we have it readily available with the next generation of children. And that’s why the painful thing that Jacob Elordi and Victor enact is a father and son relationship that is very relatable in the film, very relatable and very moving by the end.
Gross then asks if del Toro utilized AI at all with the new film, as its producer Netflix has announced the company is “all in” on using AI to reduce the cost of production. The Mimic director responds with a blunt dismissal: “I’d rather die.”
GROSS: Did you take advantage of any AI in making Frankenstein?
DEL TORO: AI, particularly generative AI, I am not interested, nor will I ever be interested. I’m 61, and I hope to be able to remain uninterested in using it at all until I croak.
GROSS: (Laughter).
DEL TORO: I really don’t. The other day, somebody wrote me an email, said, what is your stance on AI? And my answer was very short. I said, I’d rather die. [emphasis added]
Later on, Gross asks about Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) deporting illegal immigrants in Los Angeles, fretting that the elite Hollywood power player himself could be a target because of his accent. Del Toro gravely replies: “I have my papers with me at all times.”
GROSS: So I have to ask – you live in LA. There’s been quite a large ICE crackdown there. And you’re Mexican. You have an accent.
DEL TORO: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
GROSS: Has anybody from ICE stopped you and asked for your papers?
DEL TORO: Not yet, but if we ever meet in person, I’ll show you. I have a wallet the size of a leather portfolio, and I always carry my papers. I have been stopped in the past and asked to show my papers in the past and ask pointed questions in the past, pulled aside in immigration in the past. So I have all my papers with me at all times. And it is a very difficult time when there is no voice for the other. And I think that understanding that the other is you is crucial.
Del Toro has infrequently delivered left-wing takes on hot-button political topics in the recent past. After President Donald Trump’s first electoral victory, he described the MAGA movement as a racist “cancer” on America. After actor Alec Baldwin’s fatal shooting on the set of the film Rust, del Toro promised he would no longer use real firearms in his productions. In 2023, he signed an open letter denouncing so-called “book bans” which sought to remove pornographic materials from school libraries and curricula. This spring, del Toro joined dozens of Hollywood celebrities in claiming Israel was committing “genocide” and “targeting civilians” in its crusade to defeat Hamas and rescue hostages taken during the October 7 terror attacks.
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