The Art Directors Guild released a statement on social media on Tuesday condemning Martin Scorsese’s recent partnership with AI startup Black Forest Labs. In the statement, the guild accused one of Hollywood’s most celebrated directors of “turning his back on the human artists who throughout his career have helped him create his most memorable works.”
“In the recently released Black Forest Labs video promoting their generative AI product FLUX, Mr. Scorsese asks the question, ‘how do you communicate what you see in your head to your cast and crew?’ He claims the solution is the use of this generative AI program to do the jobs that are rightfully the jurisdiction of Art Directors Guild Local 800 artists and designers – human artists and designers who have been successfully collaborating with directors to visualize their films for decades,” the statement reads. “Mr. Scorsese’s promotion of a generative AI product circumvents the input of Art Directors Guild Local 800 art directors, graphic artists, illustrators, production designers, scenic artists, set designers, and other talented Union professionals.”
Reps for Scorsese did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment.
On June 2, Black Forest Labs unveiled Scorsese as its new advisor in an effort to “push the bounds of creativity to create deeper and richer experiences for audiences.” In his own statement, posted on the Black Forest website, Scorsese said cinema “is a young medium” and that filmmakers “have to be open to how it can evolve.”
Scorsese continued, “I utilized 3D with ‘Hugo’ and de-aging technology for ‘The Irishman.’ Now, with this tool, I can share what I’m visualizing more clearly and efficiently to my creative team — the production designer, art designer, and cinematographer — for them to build on to enrich cinematic intelligence.”
The Art Directors Guild isn’t the only Hollywood voice calling out Scorsese for embracing AI. On June 3, “I Love Boosters” director Boots Riley wrote on X that he thought the “Taxi Driver” director partnered with Black Forest Labs for finacial reasons. He also wrote that Scorsese probably “doesn’t give a fuck” since he thinks AI will “fall on its face anyway.”
Reily wrote, “My guess: at 83, they gave his family a gang of money (they throw tens of millions left&right) he wanted the income stream4them& feels like ‘AI’ will fall on its face anyway, so he doesnt give a fuck. If that’s not the case, extrafuck him. Separately, go see ‘I Love Boosters’ today.”
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