Hollywood just hit the tipping point in its acceptance of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
Martin Scorsese, the living embodiment of cinema as high art and a conscience for modern Hollywood, on Tuesday threw his weight behind an A.I. start-up that specializes in image generation. In a statement and an accompanying video<\/a> made in his New York City office, Mr. Scorsese discussed how he had used technology from Black Forest Labs, a fast-rising A.I. venture, during preproduction for a new film.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m interested in the intersection of technology and storytelling, and seeing how that can push the bounds of creativity to create deeper and richer experiences for audiences,\u201d Mr. Scorsese, 83, said in the statement, which was shared exclusively with The New York Times. \u201cRemember, cinema is a young medium, only around 125 years old, so we have to be open to how it can evolve.\u201d<\/p>\n Black Forest Labs said Mr. Scorsese, a 16-time Academy Award nominee who won best director for \u201cThe Departed\u201d in 2007, had signed on last year as a partner and an adviser.<\/p>\n When generative A.I. became widely available in 2022, Hollywood\u2019s creative class mobilized against it as an existential threat. The technology allows people to create text, photorealistic images and videos \u2014 in an instant \u2014 simply by describing what they want to see. What would prevent studios from substituting software for writers, actors, visual effects artists, animators and others?<\/p>\n The anxiety was so extreme that protections against generative A.I. became a central demand in the 2023 strikes<\/a> involving more than 170,000 Hollywood workers. Studios began to treat A.I. as a radioactive topic.<\/p>\n But the entertainment industry\u2019s stance has recently softened to a remarkable degree<\/a>.<\/p>\n Demi Moore, while serving as a juror at the recent Cannes Film Festival, told reporters<\/a> that fighting A.I. \u201cis a battle that we will lose, so to find ways in which we can work with it, I think, is a more valuable path to take.\u201d Last week, Robert De Niro\u2019s Tribeca Film Festival said it would showcase a film created entirely with A.I.<\/a> \u2014 no actors, no sets, no cameras. Jane Rosenthal, a leading Hollywood producer and Tribeca co-founder, called the film \u201ca powerful example of how emerging technologies like A.I. can be used not simply as tools of innovation, but as vehicles for deeply human storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n On the same day, Amazon MGM Studios unveiled a slate of A.I.-generated programs<\/a>: three animated series for children.<\/p>\n And now comes Mr. Scorsese.<\/p>\n \u201cI am super excited about the fact that someone like Martin Scorsese \u2014 one of the greatest, most impressive filmmakers to exist \u2014 is using our technology and curious about exploring it,\u201d Robin Rombach, the chief executive of Black Forest Labs, said in a Zoom interview. \u201cIt\u2019s such a great proof point that this works.\u201d<\/p>\n Generative A.I. still has prominent Hollywood detractors. Seth Rogen<\/a> and Guillermo del Toro<\/a> spoke out (colorfully) against the technology at Cannes last month. Amazon\u2019s children\u2019s show endeavor quickly drew criticism<\/a>, prompting one participant to drop out.<\/p>\n Mr. Scorsese declined an interview request. But it was clear that his A.I. endorsement had limits. His statement and accompanying video were entirely related to storyboarding, which is the process of visually mapping out a film before cameras roll.<\/p>\n \u201cFor 70 years, I\u2019ve been creating my own storyboards,\u201d Mr. Scorsese said in the statement. \u201cThere\u2019s always been this problem of how do you communicate what you see in your head to your cast and crew. There are some things you have to see and feel.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow with this tool,\u201d he said, \u201cI can share what I\u2019m visualizing more clearly and efficiently to my creative team \u2014 the production designer, art designer and cinematographer.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI recently tested this out on a scene, and the ability to visualize and immediately share the storyboard was creatively freeing. During the preproduction process, time costs money, and this allowed us to move faster without sacrificing quality or craft.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Rombach, 33, co-founded Black Forest Labs in 2024 in Freiburg, Germany, after working at Stability AI, a start-up that counts the Oscar-winning filmmaker James Cameron as a board member; Mr. Rombach helped develop Stability\u2019s popular image generator, Stable Diffusion. Black Forest Labs focuses on open A.I. models called FLUX, which generate imagery from text prompts and allow for advanced video editing.<\/p>\n