{"id":557737,"date":"2026-07-19T16:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T16:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/557737\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T16:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T16:53:08","slug":"odyssey-director-christopher-nolan-calls-ai-an-obvious-trojan-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/557737\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Odyssey\u2019 director Christopher Nolan calls AI an obvious \u2018Trojan horse\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christopher Nolan, the Oscar-winning director whose new version of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d is currently conquering the box office<\/a>, said it\u2019s been \u201cpretty encouraging\u201d to see deep skepticism of AI, especially from young people<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nolan was responding to a question from interviewer Hugo Travers<\/a>, who publishes on YouTube under the name HugoD\u00e9crypte. Travers brought up the legendary Trojan horse, which plays a key role in Nolan\u2019s film \u2014 just as the horse was a gift concealing murderous Greek invaders, he wondered if AI might be something \u201cthat you welcome in your daily life\u201d only to see it become \u201csomething else and something darker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laughing, Nolan responded, \u201cI think AI is a Trojan horse that everybody knows the Greeks are inside.\u201d He later described the technology as \u201ca transparent horse, it\u2019s made of glass.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen a technology advancing so rapidly [that\u2019s been] so completely rejected by the public,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s suspicion of it is so extreme, particularly young people. The reaction to AI videos online and people my children\u2019s age immediately calling it \u2018AI slop\u2019 and coining that term and just putting it in a box.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Nolan\u2019s view, this is \u201ca very healthy skepticism, because technology is always going to give us great gifts, as you say, but it has to be viewed with skepticism.\u201d Similarly, he said, \u201cThe motives of the people giving it to us also have to be viewed with skepticism. That\u2019s when we\u2019ll get the best out of a new technology, rather than just blind faith that everything\u2019s going to be great.\u201d (Meanwhile, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been angrily posting about the film\u2019s nonwhite and transgender cast members<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Nolan didn\u2019t get more specific about what he views as the threat from AI, but the technology has been a growing source of concern in Hollywood and was a major focus during the writers\u2019 and actors\u2019 strikes of 2023<\/a>. The Directors Guild of America, where Nolan is president, also won some generative AI protections<\/a> in its most recent contract.<\/p>\n

The director has been famously resistant to other technologies, including smartphones; his embrace of film can make him seem simultaneously like a Luddite<\/a> and a pioneer, with \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d becoming the first feature film to be shot entirely on Imax film and cameras.<\/p>\n

When The New York Times recently asked Nolan if he thinks of himself as a technophobe<\/a>, he replied, \u201cI think of myself as a techno-skeptic,\u201d and said his love of film comes from the fact that it\u2019s \u201cbetter in terms of representing the way the eye sees the world than any digital imaging system I\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI embrace new technology all the time, but it tends to be sold to people at the expense of systems that might still be valid and viable,\u201d Nolan said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I saw in my industry \u2014 throwing the baby out with the bath water. We almost lost film!\u201d<\/p>\n

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christopher Nolan, the Oscar-winning director whose new version of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d is currently conquering the box office, said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,50678,61,60,80,83194],"class_list":["post-557737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-christopher-nolan","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology","tag-the-odyssey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}