Filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who directed a 2001 film called AI, says he’s never used artificial intelligence to make a film, but doesn’t seem completely opposed to the idea.
“I am for AI in many different disciplines,” he said in front of a live audience at the South by Southwest Festival and Conference in Austin on Friday. “I am not for AI if it replaces a creative individual.”
Spielberg was being interviewed by Sean Fennessey of The Ringer’s podcast The Big Picture. Spielberg last came to SXSW in 2018 for an activation event and premiere screening of Ready Player One.
Fennessey began the interview asking about Spielberg’s earliest memories of film and went on to discuss the filmmaker’s experiences as a moviemaker, parent and space-alien enthusiast.
Spielberg said that, so far, AI hasn’t been used in any of his films or TV projects. But he stopped short of ruling out the possibility of using AI sometime in the future.
“All the seats are occupied” in his writers’ rooms, he said. “There’s no empty chair with a laptop on it.”
The subject of technology, which has permeated Spielberg’s work, including the movie Minority Report, came up several times during the talk. The filmmaker said he’s kept up to date on current events through his children and grandchildren, but avoids social media entirely because he simply doesn’t have the time.
He tried Instagram for two weeks.
“I had missing time as if I had been abducted by aliens,” he said.
Aliens haven’t reached out to the E.T. director
Given that it’s the subject of the famous director’s next film, Disclosure Day, due out in June, aliens were a major topic of the conversation.
When asked if he was keeping up with recent stories about President Barack Obama’s comments on the possibility of space aliens (which also originated on a podcast), Spielberg said he’s still fascinated by alien stories and theories, including documentaries.
“I don’t know any more than any of you do. But I have a very strong sneaking suspicion that we are not alone here on Earth right now,” Spielberg said. “And I made a movie about that,” he said, referring to Disclosure Day.
The movie isn’t screening at South by Southwest, but it’s being promoted with a panel and a large mural in downtown Austin.
Spielberg lamented not being contacted by aliens, even though he’s made multiple movies about them, including E.T., War of the Worlds and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
“I haven’t even had a close encounter of the first or second kind. Where’s the justice in that?” Spielberg joked. “If you’re listening out there, I’m talking to you!”
He has no plans to retire or ever stop making films, though he’s balanced filmmaking with parenting for the last 20 years. The director mentioned a film he made that’s been very overlooked (the romantic film titled Always). He also spoke about how making E.T. made him want to be a parent, and hinted at what his next major project might be.
When Fennessey pointed out that Spielberg has made films in all genres except Westerns, the director said he has a project in the works he wants to shoot in Texas. He promised it would be a Western without the typical Western tropes.
Spielberg said, “I have something in development right now. And it kicks ass!”
