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The Oscar-winning director discussed his new reimagining of “Frankenstein,” and technology — and issued a blunt rejection of AI tools: “I’d rather die.”
When the creative genius behind such movies as “Pan’s Labyrinth”, “Nightmare Alley”, and “The Shape of Water”, has views on AI, it’s worth taking note.
In an interview with NPR, Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro discussed his new reimagining of “Frankenstein,” mortality, fatherhood, and technology — and issued a blunt rejection of AI tools: “I’d rather die.”
This all sounds as dramatic as his films, but he explains why.
In the NPR interview, del Toro traces his fascination with “Frankenstein” to childhood Sundays in Guadalajara after Catholic Mass, when he first saw the 1931 film. “I saw the resurrection of the flesh, the immaculate conception, ecstasy, stigmata. Everything made sense,” he said. At age seven, he decided the creature would be “my personal avatar and my personal messiah.”
The interviewer asked, “You could say in some ways that the creature in ‘Frankenstein’ is like AI, because he’s created by man but then lives on its own and can destroy man, 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 responded, “It did and it didn’t. It didn’t in the sense that my concern is not AI, 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.”
“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,” he added.
His comments on “arrogance” and “tech bros” are interesting, as many others have expressed concerns about the actions of people like Sam Altman or Mark Zuckerberg.
There are numerous examples to cite, but an article in The Japan Times took issue with Altman and Zuckerberg “aggressively promoting the idea that everyone — children included — should form relationships with AI ‘friends’ or ‘companions’.”
There are also plenty of negative stories about AI, such as job cuts or misfires. Of course, the AI lovers will point to positive aspects, such as Google’s ‘Project Suncatcher’ or helping with finances.
But for del Toro, he’s been creative and successful without AI for a long time.
“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. 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.”
The last word can be about Mary Shelley’s 1818 Gothic story “Frankenstein.” The monster (who is never named) attempts to fit into human society but is shunned, which leads him to seek revenge against his creator Victor Frankenstein.
Let’s hope that isn’t an analogy for AI.
Anthropic and Iceland unveiled a national initiative to bring Claude — Anthropic’s AI assistant — to teachers across Iceland. The collaboration marks one of the world’s first national AI education pilots.
