Justine Bateman has strategically leveraged her platform into an influential union and labor advocacy role, trying to play both the growing conservative interdependent movement and the Hollywood Guilds to the middle; her middle. Her apocalyptic warnings about AI eliminating all creative jobs grant her significant media visibility, making sure that cable news talking heads present her as a major authority on subjects to their dwindling boomer audience, even though her sound bites ring similar to YouTubers who made the same points months prior, and before they were made safe by a growing consensus. Her activism functions not just as a defense of labor but as a personal brand of unassailable humanitarian defender, making any producer who advocates for efficient AI a necessary enemy for her narrative. Her film festival (which is sponsored by Film Threat) is often brought up and plugged in the midst of these declarations as free of AI, although I’d be hard pressed to think of a time when she spent as much energy talking about the filmmakers and their works, within that festival, which again, is within her own circle of velvet ropes that only part at her command. If her offering truly has value, then they’ll stand out on their merits. Attacking the competition, making the conversation about them, rather than your product, actually serves to devalue the hard work of everyone who makes their movies and brings them to the platform they’ve been asked to trust.
The conflict at CalArts exposes the core tension perfectly. While the administration is forced to integrate AI into the curriculum to keep their graduates viable in the new job market, the furious student protests, the anti-AI “propaganda” decorating the campus in Pasadena, are a reaction to these strategically stoked economic fears. They are angry that the six-figure price tag on their traditional training is being devalued by an easily accessible, fast tool, which proves that the outrage is about protecting their investment at everybody else’s expense, rather than defending the sanctity of art or working to prove that their skills are still relevant.
“This critique is aimed at the raw clay, not the potential sculpture.”
What about other “concerns”? The argument that AI is too costly or energy-intensive is rapidly becoming obsolete. It is based on a short-term view of technology’s infancy. Just like early computers, AI is on a steep curve of efficiency. Tomorrow’s models will be vastly more efficient than today’s, but even now, most generations have less of an impact than your average Twitch stream. To base a long-term opposition on a short-term technological growing pain is intellectually dishonest. The critics are ignoring that the energy saved by using AI to avoid expensive, multi-crew human productions, with all their associated travel, equipment, and material waste, is likely a massive net gain for project viability. (Remember my Viability Gap article? You should read that.)
The critics’ emotional opposition is not stalling AI; it is only stalling the professional growth of those who won’t stop to ask themselves, “Should I be listening to this person?” They are not acting or thinking as brave artistic defenders; they are acting as market protectionists, all while leading those they pretend to advocate for, who they have whipped into a frenzy with hyperbole and fear, down a dead-end street lined with primroses and useless guild contracts.
The future belongs to those who ask, “How can I use this to tell my story?” and, “How can I make this viable?” The ones who dedicate their energy to asking, “How can I make this illegal?” are not only wasting their time but are guaranteeing their own irrelevance. It is not the refusal to understand and adapt to AI, but the blind impulse to attack those who do adopt it, which announces them to businesses as a liability, that will be their undoing. It is not a defense of art; it is the defining feature of their impending professional obsolescence, and they’re not self-aware enough to see it.
Christopher Moonlight is an animator, special effects artist, and the director of the ‘Award This’ winning movie, The Quantum Terror. His upcoming animated sci-fi adventure, Escape From Planet Omega-12, combines traditional film-making special effects with AI to create something never seen before in independent film. You can follow the behind-the-scenes, including tutorials, tips, and tricks, on his YouTube Channel and Substack.
