A.I. - The Movie Critic?

My intention in writing this peice is not to name names or point fingers. In fact, I won't. But, more so, I just want to voice my frustration over the lack of comradarie in the critical film space that I have witnessed over the last several days. This is primarily something that popped up on Twitter (or X), although I'm sure it spreads to other social platforms such as Letterboxd, TikTok, etc.

Now, I've had a pretty hectic week at my job, and as a result, I've barely even been on social media. I logged on last night for the first time in a couple of days. And in full disclosure when I did so, I was already in a pretty shitty mood -- borderline depressed -- due to my Boston Red Sox being eliminated from the MLB playoffs. But, anyway after doom scrolling for a few minutes, I began to see a recurring theme in my feed, and that theme involved tones of animosity, judgement, disdain and superiority. To add even more heartache (as if the Red Sox didn't do enough of that), I realized that this all stemmed from an online finger-pointing session involving two pretty close colleagues of mine. Again, not naming any names, but if you are on "Film Twitter" regularaly, you most likely know the players involved. Up front, I just want to say that I absolutely adore both of the dudes at the center of the issues I am discussing here. They have both been guests on my old podcast (Two Peas on a Pod), and they have both presented at my annual movie awards. We collaborated and chatted about movies frequently. They both were also very supportive of my YouTube channel (The Awards Garage), often reposting my videos or commenting on them directly. So, being that I am a big fan of both of these guys, this was a tough one - and it presented a bit of a internal struggle for me. But, here's the thing...unlike most of the comments and quote-tweets I've seen in response, I don't really see this as a X vs. Y situation. Let me explain.

I know terms like "paid shill" or "studio puppet" get tossed around, but the hard truth of the matter is the vast majority of us in the critical film space are not getting paid -- and if we are -- it is meager, to say the least. My point here is - why are we doing this? Why are these two guys doing it? And by "it," I mean reviewing films - or talking about awards season. They are, I assume, doing it because they love movies - and because it is fun...or at least, it was fun. I know that is my personal driving factor in running my YouTube channel. Movies take me to places I will likely never get to go in real life. They elicit emotions in me that are not daily finds on the regular. And my guess is these guys feel the same way, or at least did at one point when it all started for them. We should get back to reviewing, critiquing, ranking, or whatever the MOVIES -- not each other. Now, I do agree with the concept of accountability. As a father of three, including two young boys, I have to hold that attribute close to the vest. So, this is where the laser missle issue of A.I. technology comes into the frame. Oh, boy (deep breaths).

Ok, I feel that it is important first of all to illustrate transparency during this peice. I don't want to appear to be holier than thou or a phony either -- and I like to think I am neither. This is all my perspective, or opinion as to how I see it, by the way, but on the topic of A.I. - there are really two roads.. The first road is the non-creative A.I. stuff, if you will. Things such as using ChatGPT as a glorified Google or Wikipedia search, or having it map out a family vacation for you to hit all the hot spots. In disclosure, I utlilize these types of functions...A LOT.  I have essentially traded in my old way of searching the web or researching a topic online to an updated more A.I. driven way to do it. In the last year or so, A.I. has helped me write my lineups as a little league coach, complete with compiling my players stats into a spreadsheet. It has helped me create a budget, pay down my debts and overall has helped me maintain a pretty solid financial plan. I often use it to proofread my video scripts or written reviews to grab any misspellings or grammatical errors. It can also tell me how long my video will be based on the script, therefore allowing me to know whether to add or cut some of the dialogue in advance as opposed to doing it during the edit. So all this analytical-type stuff, A.I. is pretty stellar at - I've never really had any issues.

However, when you go down the second A.I. road...this is where the path is a lot more bumpy, and frankly dangerous. The second road is the creative, or generative, A.I. road. And, this road sucks. We've all probably seen the cringeworthy Tilly Norwood interviews, or just the "A.I. Slop" era that we've been enduring for several months now. But here is my personal barometer for being against this road entirely; Roughly a year and a half ago when ChatGPT was first taking off, my wife had a business account - and I gave it a couple of my reviews and asked it to rewrite them -- mostly out of curiousity, and because my YouTube algorithim at the time had been feeding me all of these "use A.I. to save time creating content" videos. Well, it was um, let's just say...not good.  In terms of the review itself, I guess it got the gist of my points both positive and negative and to be honest it probably articulated it better with a lot of $100 words -- but, guess what -- it just didn't sound like me. And that's all that mattered to me. Experiment ended. In fact, I can remember having to look up a few words that were used in the reviews because I literally didn't know what they meant. Now truthfully when I write - I will often write something down a lot differently than I might say the same thing outloud in a conversation, but the overall vibes, tone and cadence of the rewrite just did not seem like something that I would ever write down (or say out loud).

Anyone that visits my channel regularly, such as my lovely members, can probably tell you I am a busy guy. I have a "real job" and a family consisting of a wife, three kids and three cats even. I coach baseball roughly 7 months out of the year. And on top of all this, I just turned 50, and I am...how do you say..... tired?! So, if anyone could benefit from cutting corners or taking shortcuts, it would be me. But, if I did so -- then the love of the movies and that fun that I spoke of earlier would be gone. I have gotten so over-extended in my hard-headiness in this regard that it sometimes feels like a crusade just to get one weekly video out. I write my own scripts, usually over at least a day or two. I shoot and edit the videos myself, another day or two. I make my own graphics, thumbnails, on-screen effects, etc during the editing process. Now, truthfully even some of these features now use A.I. - such as Canva, which is where I currently make all my thumbmails. But, the ideas and designs are all mine - which is also very important to me. I've even sought out friends to make logos or promo stuff for me in the past when I didn't like my own, as opposed to just asking ChatGPT to do it in less than 2 minutes. I hate those fake looking thumbnails where everyone just looks like a distorted Pixar character with a shocked face or yelling at the camera.

I wanted to give you my "take" on A.I. real quick and explain how I use it, which I know is a lot deeper than just the one paragraph above, but hopefully you get the gist. No matter how much you may be for or against it, I don't think there is a future void of A.I. -- it is likely here to stay. So, if that's the case - we need to do our part to keep it out of the creative process. I am a firm believer that any writings, recordings, drawings, animation, filmmaking, editing, on and on and on - should be HUMAN-CREATED using that human's own distinctive voice, reflecting their individual life experiences and saying it in a way that only they could say it. The inception or invention of the idea or story should always come from a person's mind - not generated through a machine. Now, if you don't share this view with me, that is completely fine and it's your prerogative - but again, I think that road is dangerous so I would advise you (as a human) to consider that and to drive down that road with extreme caution.

Now, almost as if I planned it this way, this loops us all the way back around to the "Twitter altercation" that inspired this write-up. If you've made it this far, I assume you can tell that I don't condone and would not knowingly celebrate any art or creative content that was generated using A.I. But, at the same time, I am not going to tear someone down for it either. I will state my personal stance, I will avoid any such proven A.I. creations. But, at the end of the day, what people choose to do is their choice. As long as it's not illegal, then they can do whatever they want without getting chastised by me - even though I may disagree with it. As an example, during the Cannes Film Festival this year, I met with my web editor and we decided to part ways with one of our bloggers under the assumption that they were using A.I. I tried to work it out with them prior, asking for any kind of verification otherwise, but was met with non-answers that only made it more sus. And since I'm not saving the world here, and I didn't know them personally to judge their character, I decided it was easier to take the safe road if there was even an off-chance that A.I was being used, and we felt there was.

I am trying to be a steady voice in this space. I just review movies and predict the Oscars (both usually poorly lol), and I try to have fun doing it. These are the things that I will critique -- not my fellow critics or pundits. Even though I've only been active in this space since 2016, I feel like a bit of an unofficial ambassador for the independent film and awards season junkies. I have always tried to be supportive of my fellow film fans and creators - I have donated money for trips or personal hardships; I have passed down old equipment such as cameras and mics. I couldn't really afford to do any of this, but I'm a firm beleiver in paying it forward. Not that I have a giant following, but I have invited other creators to come on my podcast or channel to help boost their presence in the space. I am always willing to share posts or episodes on social media, etc. These are all little things to be sure, but it's all I can really do; just trying to promote positivity in a space that usually thrives on the opposite, especially 'Film Twitter'.

In regards to the specifics of the events that started this article, I do not know for certain that my friend used A.I. All I know is that he has been accused of it, and subsequently denied it. I do not think any less of him at this moment in time. A couple of years ago, I myself had the curious urge to use it (as explained above), and probably got lucky that it just didn't mesh with me because it allowed me to keep my creative process fairly in tact. Maybe he found it differently than I did, or maybe he didn't use it all. I don't know, but I still support him and want him to enjoy watching and writing about movies.

Another friend of mine in this specific case is the "whistleblower" here, who, when you strip all the drama away, is essentially just holding the film critic space accountable - and I agree with this also. My approach would not be to call out or antagonize over it, but nonetheless I can't stress enough that if we are to be stewards of film criticism for future movie lovers, we must eliminate A.I. from that process. If we don't, I can see a scenario (not too far off, by the way) where a trade or popular film website will just start letting A.I. do all the writings and save a ton of money along the way. Then the system is broken. The people are missing from the recipe. The machines are voicing opinions. This can't happen. Please.

And lastly, through it all my ask is that we be supportive to each other, or to put it as simple as I possibly can...be nice. I know as a content creator, there is no shortage of mean-spirited trolls in the comments section of almost every video I make. Remember that the next time you decide to engage with any content. It's wild out there. There will no doubt be people on this very article's comment section trolling or saying that A.I wrote this article about A.I. not writing articles -- and I get it -- it's tough and really a lose/lose, which often makes me ask why I'm still doing it at my age. The answer is always...movies, man...movies.

If you ever want to chat further, you can find me on all social media @ TheAwardsGarage