A wave of anti-artificial intelligence sentiment drew loud applause at the SXSW conference in Austin on Tuesday afternoon. Award-winning writers and directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as “DANIELS”) originally premiered their film Everything Everywhere All at Once at SXSW in 2022. The film went on to win seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Picture, Best Picture, and more. Director, best screenwriter. In a conversation about the future of storytelling at this year’s SXSW on Tuesday, the two commented on the inevitable rise of artificial intelligence and how to achieve it, calling the technology both “awesome” and “scary.”
As Kwan first explains, modern capitalism works because we force people to work, not force them to do so.
“We have to change the story we tell ourselves and say ‘your worth is your work,'” he told the audience. “You are only worth what you can do, and we are no longer intrinsically valuable beings. This That’s why it’s so hard to find satisfaction in the current system. The system works best when you’re not satisfied,” he said, then paused. “That brings me back to artificial intelligence,” Guan continued, to thunderous applause and cheers.
Guan said people must like artificial intelligence, given the cheers, and he agreed that many would call the technology amazing.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “This could potentially solve cancer. It could potentially bring us a lot of climate solutions. It’s a powerful thing,” Kwan continued. “But I’m really scared of this new story that we have to tell ourselves in order to accept this new convenience, this new advancement. It’s scary,” he added, as only one voice cheered in the hushed crowd.
“So imagine what role this technology will play in the current system, the current incentive structure. It is the system that has brought us climate change, income inequality, and a general lack of appreciation and value for ourselves and those around us. Understood,” Guan said.
Plus, he points out, if you’re anxious about artificial intelligence, it’s probably because deep down, you know you’re next. “Even if jobs don’t disappear, the value of work is going to decrease, right? … It’s going to slowly become more complex and normalized until we don’t even realize it,” he said.
Kwan points out how social media has changed our stories. A technology designed to connect us ends up leaving us lonelier than ever. But with artificial intelligence, we still have the opportunity to “rewrite the stories and systems of tomorrow,” he explained.
However, he warned that this does not mean we can choose to ignore the progress of artificial intelligence or even its usefulness.
“I would also like to say that we are not saying ‘Don’t use artificial intelligence.’ I don’t believe in dogma. I don’t believe in that puritanical way of life – it doesn’t work. Artificial intelligence is here. It will be rapidly deployed in every aspect of our lives,” Guan said.
Scheinert agreed, adding that instead, people should think about why they are using artificial intelligence.
“Do you want to use it to create the world you want to live in? Do you want to use it to add value to your life and focus on the things you really care about? Or do you just want to make some money for a billionaire, you know? ?” Shanat asked the audience. “If someone tells you, there are no side effects. It’s awesome, just join in” – I just want to go on record and say this is horrible crap. This is not true. We should have a very deep discussion about how to deploy these things carefully and carefully,” he said.
Afterwards, the audience burst into long-lasting applause.
It seems they also have reservations about artificial intelligence.
Kwan added that people need to think about why “using artificial intelligence feels so wrong” while also surviving in the current environment where artificial intelligence is basically ubiquitous. He also reminds viewers why we make art.
“Why do we write ‘everything happens at the same time’ like this? The answer is, we do it to save ourselves. Every story we make is about saving ourselves and our worth from someone who wants to belittle us and We care about the impact of systems of human values,” Kwan said.
