Steven Soderbergh claims AI can build “dream spaces” for movies

Ocean’s 11 and Presence director Steven Soderbergh has once again weighed in on AI in filmmaking, this time adding fresh fuel to an already heated debate. In a recent interview with Filmmaker Magazine, Soderbergh explains why he’s filling 10 minutes of his upcoming documentary on John Lennon and Yoko Ono with AI-generated footage to better portray the “dream world.”

“AI has been helpful in creating thematically surreal images that occupy a dream space rather than a literal space,” Soderbergh told Filmmaker. “And that’s been really fun because you need a PhD. in literature to tell it what to do. But like every other piece of technology, it desperately requires very close human supervision.”

Soderbergh has been championing AI as a non-threatening tool to help create movies since 2023, so this isn’t anything new. But his recent statements fly in the face of some of the greatest films ever made, like Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, Christopher Nolan’s Inception, Satoshi Kon’s Paprika, and plenty more.

Paprika is a prime example. The 2006 surreal anime follows a whip-smart Dr. Chiba Atsuko and her alter ego, Paprika, in their efforts to save reality before it merges with the dream world. It’s full of fantastical and dreamy designs, many of them hand-drawn by the talented animators at Madhouse. Satoshi Kon minimally blended these images with 3D CGI to create complex and surreal environments that pop on the screen; it’s a magical experience.

Even when the scene calls for “thematically surreal images” as Soderbergh notes above, many of the best directors in the past have found ways to make their dream worlds feel fantastical and realistic. You have to remember that dreams aren’t necessarily “out of this world.” They should still feel grounded in reality. Otherwise, the facade completely fades.

AI can be used to create surreal art, but it can’t dream. The problem with Soderbergh’s thinking is that, even with the aid of all the PhDs in the world, no algorithm can capture the so-called “dream world” quite like the human imagination. After all, filmmakers have barely scratched the surface of what’s possible when designing dreamscapes.

Image: Warner Brothers Entertainment

As AI continues to penetrate the conversation around creativity and design, especially when it comes to film, we need to be careful of how much our overreliance on the technology becomes the new normal. Soderbergh clarifies that he’s only using 10 minutes of AI footage in his new documentary, but for his next planned film, which focuses on the Spanish-American War, he’s planning to use “a lot of AI.”

It’s an unfortunate turn of events that may well have devastating consequences on the film industry if more directors follow suit.