The ‘80s sitcom star views generative AI as ‘theft’ and creatively unfulfilling for audiences and creatives
Justine Bateman lays out her fears and hopes for Hollywood’s future with AI
Justine Bateman explained to Fox News Digital how she sees the next few years of Hollywood going with AI, from job losses to inevitable audience backlash, and offers advice to those trying to make it in the industry.
Justine Bateman continues to push back against AI’s infiltration of Hollywood.
The former "Family Ties" actress and filmmaker is launching a new film festival, the CREDO 23 Film Festival, requiring that entrants not use AI in their submissions.
"As we've seen over the last year, we've had a lot of streamers, embracing AI studios, embracing AI, and more recently, film festivals embracing AI. And I just feel like the use of generative AI is, it's theft, and you're never going to find out what you can really do. It's just a regurgitation of the past. You're sort of circling the drain," Bateman told Fox News Digital of her inspiration behind the festival.
She continued, "It's not the future. It's something that is going to increasingly occur in the future, but it's not the future of filmmaking. The future of filmmaking is whatever this next genre is going to be. You know, we haven't really had a new genre in the arts of any real wide significance since the '90s. So, I think we're long due for that. And I believe it's going to happen on the other side of this AI inferno."
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Justine Bateman is launching a new film festival next year that will require participants not use AI in their works. (Nathan Congleton/NBC)
Bateman laid out how she sees the next few years in Hollywood, with AI making major gains despite current provisions and protections.
"I think the use of general AI will take over our business, and it will pull too many of the jobs in our pipeline out and then consequently collapse the structure of our business, which is just sort of corporate physics. That's just what happens," the "Desperate Housewives" actress said. "And I think the audiences will be taken with it and, like the fact that they can face replace themself on, [for example] Luke Skywalker in their viewing of ‘Star Wars’ at night or get films that are customized to their own viewing history, that'll be treated like Kleenex. [Studios] won't bother to copyright those. That'll just be – that's something you got to watch that day, and they can make you 45 more the next day."
Justine Bateman and Michael J. Fox played siblings Mallory and Alex Keaton on the hit '80s show "Family Ties." (Tony Costa/NBCU Photo Bank)
She also sees an inevitable pushback against AI as well, especially as it begins to move into other industries and people’s everyday lives.
"I think they'll get to a point where the audiences will start feeling sick about it, and be bored with it, and also feel sick about how generative AI is infecting the rest of their lives, [their] education, insurance companies, your banks, everything. And at the same time, filmmakers will have had to differentiate themselves from what I can do in making really new material, making films that I can't do cheaper and quicker. And I think when you bring those two things together, where the audience is going to get to and where the filmmakers are going to get to, I think you'll have a new genre in the arts, and I'm really excited about that."
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"I think they'll get to a point where the audiences will start feeling sick about it, and be bored with it, and also feel sick about how generative AI is infecting the rest of their lives…"
— Justine Bateman
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Bateman did advise that anyone working in film now should "try to make as much money as you can in the next two years. And/or get to know the producers and directors who are using full crews, like myself, there are many others who are not using generative AI, and work with them. Because everything is shifting and changing, motivated by greed."
"And that's why it's being used," she added. "It is not being used because it makes better films. It's being used because it makes volume content production faster and cheaper."
Bateman encouraged anyone pursuing filmmaking to try to "make as much money as you can in the next two years," but also seek out producers and directors who are refusing to use AI. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Bateman started CREDO 23 last year, an organization of people "that hold filmmaking sacred, and understand their responsibility to preserve the art form," as stated on their website.
Joining Bateman on the council are actress Juliette Lewis, "Mad Men" showrunner Matt Weiner, "Handmaid’s Tale" showrunner Reed Morano, and costume designer Arianne Phillips.
"[When] I founded CREDO 23, I was, at the time, talking to quite a few people about how disconcerting the involvement of AI was in our business. And so of those people I was speaking to, I asked a few of them if they'd be on the council with me . . . and they happily accepted," Bateman said. "So, it's great to have their input and, and I respect all of them so much as artists. It's a great group."
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The "Violet" director added that the council will also make up some of the programmers for the festival, which begins accepting submissions on August 1 through October 31. The event will kick off next year, March 28-30, at American Legion, Post 43, in Hollywood.
"It's not the future. It's something that is going to increasingly occur in the future, but it's not the future of filmmaking."
— Justine Bateman
The event also promises grants, created from the profits of the festival, to participants.
"All the money that we pull in, through the various means, submissions, sponsorships, whatever, everything in excess of operating costs is going to be given to the filmmakers so that they can make more films," Bateman said.
CREDO 23 offers filmmakers the opportunity to add a stamp to the credits of their films, certifying that they have not used AI in any way, particularly generative AI, as well as minimal CGI use, and hiring union crews.
"The response to the film festival has been fantastic. People are really excited about it. It's not only, you know, refusing the use of AI, it's looking for fresh, really fresh, new filmmaking."
Bateman said the response to the film festival "has been fantastic." (Photo by Emma McIntyre)
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She added, "I want to be doing films that are the next wave of filmmaking. What did we do during our time as filmmakers? Did we just regurgitate the past? Or did we bring something new? And…new in the way that independent film was new. At some point, musicals were new. At some point, blockbusters were new, at some point, film noir was new. So what are we contributing to it? And it's certainly not going to be regurgitating material that has been stolen from all the other filmmakers in the last 100 years, which is what generative AI is."
Bateman has been speaking out against the use of AI since at least last year, when the technology came into heavy focus during the writers’ and actors’ strikes last summer.
"I think AI has no place in Hollywood at all. To me, tech should solve problems that humans have," Batemen told Fox News Digital last May at the beginning of the writers’ strike. "Using ChatGPT or any … software that's using AI to write screenplays, using that in place of a writer is not solving a problem. We don't have a lack of writers. We don't have a lack of actors. We don't have a lack of directors. We don't have a lack of talented people."
The strikes lasted until the fall for both unions, and resulted in some key provisions for both actors and writers to protect their livelihoods from being replaced by AI.
Bateman, with "ER" star Noah Wyle at the SAG-AFTRA Strike at Warner Brothers Studios last year. (JOCE/Bauer-Griffin/GC Image)
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However, in June, The Hollywood Reporter shared a report that many in the entertainment industry are quietly using AI behind the scenes.
David Stripinis, a VFX professional who has worked on films like "Avatar," "Man of Steel" and several Marvel titles, told the outlet, "There are tons of people who are using AI, but they can’t admit it publicly because you still need artists for a lot of work. And they’re going to turn against you. Right now, it’s a PR problem more than a tech problem."
"There's definitely people using it. And I say, do whatever you got to do. For me, it's an anathema to actually moving forward as an artist. So I won't ever use it for anything," Bateman told Fox News Digital.
She continued, "I don't care how long it takes instead, or how many CGI artists I would have to hire instead. I just don't care. I'm not going to use stolen work. I'm not going to stunt my own growth as an artist, which is how I see it. So it makes no difference to me if other people use it. But it's the opposite direction of where I'm going creatively and professionally."
The "Family Ties" star said she "won't ever use" AI for any project she works on. (Bennett Raglin/WireImage)
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Through her work, and now her film festival, Bateman is pushing back at the idea of movies and television as "content," saying last year, "even referring to films and series as content to begin with, I think is … insulting."
She also noted that people and audiences do genuinely appreciate the efforts that go into making a movie.
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"People love to hear about what you went through to get there," she said, citing Tom Cruise’s incredible stunt work in the "Mission: Impossible" films as an example.
"They love hearing how other humans have managed to get something done. And you see something that's done with AI and you just [shrugging] shrug emoji. You know, it's nothing. It doesn't enrich us. It doesn't take us further. It doesn't. It doesn't make us happy," she said.
"It's not only more impressive if a person did it, but it's also more encouraging to the viewer. . . . That's really exciting to people when they see that you came up with this completely inventive way to get that shot."
Bateman praised Tom Cruise's practical stunts, saying, "It's not only more impressive if a person did it, but it's also more encouraging to the viewer." (Kevin Winter/Getty Images for ThinkFilm)
Bateman continued, "I love hearing how humans managed to get something done, because that means so can you. And if you just heard that some AI algorithm chewed up a bunch of old work and spat something out. [It feels like a] shrug emoji, like it's really not impressive."
She added, "I think it's a parlor trick, and I'm not impressed with it, and I find it unexciting and depressing. I find it completely depressing. So I'm all in on human-made films, human-made for human viewing. And, I'm really excited about the future."
