"F*** AI": Why Hollywood And Creative Artists Are Pushing Back

From Oscar-winning film director Guillermo del Toro's Cannes outburst to Indian musicians and actors rejecting AI-generated art, a growing section of the creative world is pushing back against Silicon Valley's AI rush.

15 May 2026, 06:05 · www.ndtv.com

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Guillermo del Toro condemned AI at Cannes, sparking applause and debate on creativity's future
Hollywood creatives fear AI may replace actors, writers, and musicians without consent
Shekhar Kapur advocates AI in cinema but stresses human intuition remains crucial

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At a time when Silicon Valley cannot stop talking about artificial intelligence as the future, large parts of the creative world seem increasingly exhausted, alarmed, and even disgusted by it. That tension exploded rather dramatically at the Cannes Film Festival this week when 'Frankenstein' (2025) director and Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro ended a public appearance with two blunt words: "F*** AI."
The crowd responded with applause and a standing ovation.

The reaction inside the room revealed something larger that now seems to be unfolding across films, music, writing and art. While the technology industry and most businesses in general appear obsessed with accelerating AI adoption into everything possible, many people in creative fields are becoming increasingly uneasy about where this may all be headed.

And not just because of jobs. For many artists, the fear seems far more existential: what happens when machines begin imitating creativity itself?

Del Toro's frustration appeared directed not simply at AI technology, but at the growing idea that art can somehow be generated instantly "with a f***ing app," as he put it during the Cannes discussion. And he is far from alone.

Hollywood's AI Anxiety Is Growing

For the past two years, AI has become one of the most divisive conversations inside Hollywood and the broader creative industries.
Actors worry about digital replicas replacing performances. Writers fear studios using AI-generated scripts as cheap first drafts. Illustrators and musicians accuse AI firms of training models on copyrighted creative work without consent.

The anxiety became so intense during the 2023 Hollywood strikes that AI protections eventually became one of the central demands raised by writers and actors unions.
Since then, some of the world's biggest creative names have publicly voiced discomfort with where things may be headed.

James Cameron has warned against AI-generated performances replacing human storytelling, calling it "horrifying." Steven Spielberg has similarly expressed discomfort with AI replacing creative individuals in filmmaking. "I am not for AI if it replaces a creative individual," the E.T. director has said.

Earlier this year, hundreds of actors, directors and artists, including Cate Blanchett, Ben Stiller, and Mark Ruffalo backed a campaign accusing AI companies of exploiting copyrighted creative work without proper permission.

But interestingly, not everybody in Hollywood appears to be approaching AI the same way.
Speaking at Cannes this week, Demi Moore said fighting AI altogether may ultimately be "a battle that we will lose." Yet she also argued that true art emerges from "the soul and spirit" of human beings, something she believes technology cannot recreate.

Back home in India, veteran filmmaker Shekhar Kapur has emerged as a prominent advocate for the integration of AI in cinema, predicting a future where AI-powered digital actors will become mainstream and potentially replace traditional human stars.

Kapur is currently pushing the envelope with Warlord, a sci-fi series built from the ground up using generative AI in a tie-up with Studio Blo. It's not just a solo project, though; he's looking to open up the production assets to other creators, effectively open-sourcing the creative process. Beyond the screen, he's teaming up with A.R. Rahman to launch an AI film school in Mumbai's Dharavi (India's biggest slum) - a move aimed at putting high-tech storytelling tools into the hands of grassroots creators. His own workflow involves plenty of hands-on experimentation, too; he's already been using ChatGPT to test out script ideas and narrative beats for a possible Masoom 2. This fusion of art and tech is what led him to MBZUAI (the world's first AI university) in Abu Dhabi this May, where he's mentoring the next wave of talent in their AI x Arts Fellowship. But even as he leans into automation and crosses over to the 'dark side', as many from the creative fields may feel, Kapur is clear on the bottom line: the machine can assist, but it cannot replicate the raw intuition and human spark that actually makes a story resonate.

This contradiction perhaps captures where much of the creative industry currently stands: curious, cautious, conflicted and still trying to figure out where the line between tool and replacement really lies.

'We Now Know What It Means Not To Be Human'

Other Indian artists and musicians appear to be grappling with similar questions.
Actor-director Danish Husain believes the anxiety around AI ultimately goes beyond jobs and enters something far more philosophical.

"Even we do not comprehend completely what makes us human," he told NDTV. "But with the scourge of AI we know for certain what does it mean not to be human."
"Art is not merely an assemblage of esoteric ideas and patterns. It is the unique human insight of the artist that elevates art into a universal heritage," said the Peepli Live actor.

Meanwhile, Mumbai-based music composer Subhajit Mukherjee, known for his work in advertising and a Cannes Lions winner, says the creative world itself remains deeply divided on AI.

"It's not that people from the creative industry are completely against AI," he told NDTV. "I personally know many creative people who have embraced AI with an open heart."
"But at the same time there are people who are against it, and fortunately or unfortunately I'm one of them."

Mukherjee says the bigger concern is whether AI begins replacing human livelihoods rather than simply assisting creative work. "If we are using AI, we should try to use it in a way so that it doesn't affect other people's bread and butter. It's extremely important," he said.
"And secondly, it's my belief that as creative people we should trust our heart and brain more than AI."

For Subir Malik, founding member and organist of India's legendary rock band Parikrama, the concern is deeply personal. "I was actually pretty happy seeing what Del Toro said," Malik told NDTV. "Technology is something we need in our lives. But its misuse is also immense."

Malik pointed to the growing flood of AI-generated music now appearing online. "I heard that something like every fifth song on the US Spotify charts is now AI-generated," he said. "People are just doing it and real artists are missing out."

He recalled recently rejecting AI-assisted lyrics sent by a collaborator for an upcoming Parikrama song. "I spent two days writing fresh lyrics instead of using something generated in 30 seconds," he said. "Frankly telling you, I felt I would be cheating my audience. My conscience didn't allow me to use AI at all."

Parikrama, he says, has already made a clear internal decision regarding its future music.
"We'll be releasing 50 songs in the next five years and one rule we made very clearly is that not a single line of lyrics or music will ever be AI-generated and used by Parikrama."

Singer-songwriter Palash Sen, the voice behind the iconic band Euphoria, takes a somewhat more nuanced view.

"I'm not really worried about AI because of course it's a great tool," he told NDTV. "But AI doesn't have lived experience. It doesn't have intuition. And definitely doesn't have the spark of the soul."

Sen acknowledged that every major technological shift brings both advantages and downsides. But he believes human emotion still remains impossible to replicate.
"I don't think AI could ever write a song like Maeri or Mehfooz," he said. "AI's heart has not got broken. A human emotion cannot be replaced."
At the same time, Sen says he is actually more worried about commercialisation within the music industry itself than AI alone.

"I'm still more worried about a music industry where independent voices don't get heard," he said. "Till AI's heart is broken, it will never write the kind of songs that last."

Silicon Valley vs The Creative World

What makes all this especially fascinating is how differently AI is currently being viewed depending on the industry.

Inside technology circles, AI is largely discussed with excitement, inevitability and ambition. Companies are racing to integrate AI into search engines, education, coding, productivity tools, healthcare and software development. Investors continue pouring billions into AI startups. CEOs openly describe the technology as transformative.
But across large sections of the creative world, the emotional response feels far more conflicted.

That is partly because creativity has historically been viewed as one of the most deeply human forms of work; something tied to emotion, lived experience, vulnerability and imperfection.

And many artists appear unconvinced that statistically generated outputs can truly replicate that.

AI may already be extraordinarily good at mimicking human creativity. But across Cannes and much of the larger creative world, a growing number of artists seem unconvinced that generated output and genuine human expression are the same thing. And judging by the applause that followed Guillermo del Toro's outburst at Cannes, that resistance is no longer sitting quietly in the background.

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