Boots Riley came out swinging after Martin Scorsese announced his involvement with the AI company Black Forest Labs on Tuesday, guessing that the filmmaker joined the firm as an advisor to help provide for his family and that Scorsese “doesn’t give a fuck” since he thinks AI will “fall on its face anyway.”
The “I Love Boosters” filmmaker posted on X: “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.”
Scorsese announced Tuesday that he was joining Black Forest Labs as an advisor to “push the bounds of creativity” and help create visuals such as storyboards.
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Riley wrote that his issue with Scorsese’s support of the technology wasn’t as much about objecting to the 83-year-old filmmaker using AI in his work, but rather about using his influence to push others into using it.
“Like – yeah the problem with filmmaking is “we didn’t have the tools to be creative before this,” Riley wrote on X. “To b clear, my vitriol is not about him using it, I’d likely simply sneer at that in private. It’s about him using his cache 2 promote this and attempt to push the industry toward it. They need him. 1 Trillion spent on generative AI & it’s not saving anyone or changing film yet.”
“Cinema is a young medium, only around 125 years old, so we have to be open to how it can evolve,” Scorsese wrote on Black Forest’s website when his advisory role was announced. He said it would help him visualize more efficiently to his production designer, art designer and cinematographer.
Scorsese recently wrapped production on “What Happens At Night,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence.
Riley has been active on social media promoting “I Love Boosters,” a comedy satirizing capitalism whic opened in theaters May 22 via Neon.