Christopher Nolan, the Oscar-winning director whose remake of “The Odyssey” is currently conquering the box office, said it has been “quite encouraging” to see deep skepticism toward AI, especially among young people.

Nolan was responding to a question from interviewer Hugo Travers, who posts on YouTube under the name HugoDécrypte. Travers mentioned the legendary Trojan horse, which plays a key role in Nolan’s film; Just as the horse was a gift he hid from the murderous Greek invaders, he wondered if AI could be something “that you appreciate in your daily life” only to see it become “something else and something darker.”

Nolan responded with a laugh: “I think AI is a Trojan horse that everyone knows the Greeks have inside.” He later described the technology as “a transparent horse, it’s made of glass.”

“I have never seen technology advance so quickly. [that’s been] “It’s so completely rejected by the public,” he said. “Everyone is very suspicious of this, especially young people. The reaction to the AI ​​videos online and people my kids’ age immediately called it ‘low AI’ and coined that term and just put it in a box.”

In Nolan’s opinion, this is “a very healthy skepticism, because technology will always give us great gifts, as you say, but it must be viewed with skepticism.” Similarly, he said: “The motives of the people who give it to us should also be viewed with skepticism. That’s when we get the best out of a new technology, rather than just having blind faith that everything is going to be great.” (Meanwhile, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been posting angrily about the film’s transgender and non-white cast members.)

Nolan was not more specific about what he sees as the threat of AI, but the technology has been a growing source of concern in Hollywood and was a major focus during the writers and actors strikes of 2023. The Directors Guild of America, where Nolan is president, also gained some generative AI protections in its most recent contract.

The director has been resistant to other technologies, including smartphones; His embrace of film can make him seem both a Luddite and a pioneer, and “The Odyssey” became the first feature film shot entirely on film and Imax cameras.

When The New York Times recently asked Nolan if he considers himself a technophobe, he responded, “I consider myself a techno-skeptic,” and said his love of film comes from the fact that it is “better in terms of representing the way the eye sees the world than any digital imaging system I’ve ever seen.”

“I embrace new technologies all the time, but they tend to be sold to people at the expense of systems that could still be valid and viable,” Nolan said. “That’s what I saw in my industry: throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We almost lost the movie!”