Idiotech: The End of Creation?

If you’re like me and spend far too much time scrolling on Twitter (call it X in front of me at your peril), you may have seen some news about a TV series called The Chosen. A conservative evangelical series following the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the show has aired four seasons of a potential seven. This past week, however, The Chosen became much more than just a successful TV series. Thanks to either the religious zeal or blasphemous greed (mayhaps a combination of the two) of show creator Dallas Jenkins, The Chosen has officially become the launchpad for a new slate of Bible-inspired projects, thus beginning the Bible Cinematic Universe, or ‘Biblical Universe’. 

My first thought when I heard this news was: “Surely creating a cinematic universe out of your religion’s holiest text gets you sent directly to Hell, right? Like, maybe not to the part where all the murderers go, but this has to merit at least a little fire and brimstone or, worst case, that giant doughnut machine from Treehouse of Horror.” My second thought, a bit more relevant to the point of this article, was of Midjourney, the artificial intelligence (AI) image-generating software that, much like the creators of the Biblical Universe, is incapable of treading genuinely new and meaningful ground. 

We are stuck simultaneously in the age of the remake and the age of the cinematic universe. The extent to which this is hobbling our collective ability to make interesting or even just original art cannot be understated. Films and TV shows based on previously existing art are not new, of course. The Godfather, widely considered to be one of the greatest films of all time, is based on a book, and the Interview with the Vampire TV series is based on a film of the same name, which itself is based on a book. Retreading old ground is not, in and of itself, a bad thing, and sometimes (like in the case of Interview with a Vampire or, more controversially, The Shining) the newer version can even improve upon the original source material. But if all we are capable of doing is copying, retreading, and rehashing, then our art will continue to get worse and more repetitive, as new generations of artists are raised on retreads and go into creative spaces thinking that is what’s expected of them. We are heading in this direction, and it is deeply frightening.

It’s no wonder that generative AI like Midjourney has taken off in the way that it has. If the heads of major movie studios like David Zaslav, a man whose one skill is collecting tax breaks by destroying finished films, are pushing for more and more of the same, then why not let the machines do it for us? These algorithms gorge themselves on copyrighted material and spit out recycled slop in mere moments, making them the perfect replacements for all of those creative people who do the work on a film or TV show and thus have to be paid. The only cost is the devastating environmental impact caused by the sky-high energy usage, which is of course outweighed by the profound joy (hate) I feel when I get to see an AI-generated trailer of Wes Anderson’s The Lord of the Rings. Take that, artists!

If all of my rhetorical flourishes have obfuscated the true extent of my feelings on this issue, then let me be clear: generative AI is terrible. I see not a single positive use for it. You would do less damage to society overall by building a cancer ray and firing it wildly in the middle of a crowded street. Considering the powerful art that usually comes as a result of grief, you’d probably indirectly create better media, too. But we shouldn’t be surprised at the rise of AI. Nothing in history is inevitable, but our new obsession with nostalgia and digging up cultural relics to make a quick buck has made inventions like generative AI much more likely to exist and gain prominence. So let’s cool it with the remakes and maybe, just maybe, we’ll hold on to that uniquely human ability to create art. 

Image from Wikimedia Commons