‘We’re expanding the cinematic toolbox’: AI fault lines on show at Cannes

From beachside summits to yacht parties, leading figures at Cannes debated whether AI was cinema’s next creative revolution or an existential threat. Photograph: Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP/Getty Images

Under a white marquee on Cannes’ Croisette beach, with the Mediterranean glistening behind him and superyachts drifting across the horizon, the director Darren Aronofsky addressed an audience of executives and tech evangelists gathered for an “AI for Talent” summit.

“There’s so much pushback against AI,” said Aronofsky, who has faced criticism over his embrace of generative AI projects though his new studio, Primordial Soup, at a time when artificial intelligence has become one of the film industry’s most divisive fault lines.