SLOP & AWE

written and directed by Aleem Hossain

AI Offset: This film used AI tools. Donations were made to the Authors Guild, the Concept Art Association, and the Entertainment Community Fund.

Music: “Keep Smiling At Trouble (Trouble’s A Bubble)”  Performed by Al Jolson, Courtesy of MCA Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises

PRESS KIT HERE

Directors Statement for Slop & Awe by Aleem Hossain

Fighting Fire With Fire: Why I used AI to mock AI

This is me trying to Fight AI Fire with AI Fire. 

In other words, I made a satirical film criticizing AI's copyright theft. And I used AI to make it.

It’s a fraught and contradictory effort. I welcome the debate. But I’m inspired by work like Jean Luc Godard’s Contempt, where he used all the tools of an epic Cinemascope big budget film to indict the corruption of cinema by commerce. 

I called the film Slop & Awe because I’m really upset by this technology (& still a little intrigued). I'd consider making more AI films only under very specific circumstances and we should not move forward with mainstream use of this technology until we address the past and ongoing issues.

I don’t think the companies that are developing, promoting, and selling these tools care about humanity. Or at least they don’t care nearly enough.

There are many complaints to raise about AI (I probably agree with all the complaints) but the one on my mind most when making this film was the disgusting, harmful, and illegal loop of AI slurping up art work that real humans wrote, painted, composed, directed, photographed, produced, etc. and then regurgitating it back to us.

I wrote the script for this project myself and then generated the images and video using almost all of the current top-tier AI tools. I spent a lot of time deciding which versions of the clips to include in the film. I intentionally wanted to keep in some of the strange AI-isms that are so common in AI generated media. But I also wanted to produce a film that met my high standards of quality for what a film should be. That wasn’t always an easy balance to strike.

I licensed the music in Slop & Awe through proper channels because I love copyright. And I’ve tried to create an “AI Offset” by making donations to the Authors Guild and the Concept Art Association. Giving to these groups, who are fighting on behalf of creators against AI, is an attempt at some ethical accounting for using tools built on stolen creative work. I also made a donation to the Entertainment Community Fund which provides a safety net for entertainment workers. Whether that's meaningful mitigation or elaborate rationalization is an open question.

The film captures how I feel. I think art is really at its strongest when it makes us feel and I think the film captures my emotions..

But here’s what I think:

Idea #1: There’s no such thing as an ethical AI image or video (or anything else AI, for that matter). Yes, we should be upset about fake Darth Vader or Brad Pitt videos. That’s clearly copyright and likeness infringement. But don’t stop there. Every single thing made by ChatGPT, Midjourney, Dreamina, Runway, Claude, Gemini, Nano Banana, Kling etc. is based on stolen intellectual property. No matter what the text or image or video depicts or how it was prompted, it’s all made possible by a huge underlying heist. This is AI’s original sin.

Idea #2: Some of the images and videos made using AI are amazing! These tools have the potential to help artists around the world make work they would have no chance of making otherwise. This is AI’s potentially amazing destiny.

But Idea #2 does not cancel out Idea #1.

The AI cheerleaders need to stop calling critics Luddites. I’m not a Luddite. I’ve used this tech a lot now, I understand it very well. And it has only made me more upset. I’ve been making films for 27 years and have navigated many technological changes in my career. My concerns are not a surface-level reaction to new things.

I’ve chosen to engage with this technology but I want to stress that I think the "Never AI" camp is right about the threat to labor and the planet. I would just say that we should also appreciate the fact that this technology could allow independent artists to create highly personal work that was never going to be funded by Hollywood. If I had to bet, it’s that AI will do way more harm than good. But I’m trying to stay just a little open to its potential while raging against the machine.

We cannot move forward without addressing the underlying theft and the potential future harm.

The people running these tech companies don’t care about our concerns. We have to compel them to treat humanity better.