Art Directors Guild condemns Scorsese AI partnership

A prominent Hollywood union has publicly criticized director Martin Scorsese for partnering with an artificial intelligence company, marking a significant new flashpoint in the industry's ongoing debate over the technology. The Art Directors Guild (IATSE Local 800) issued a statement on June 9 condemning Scorsese's role as an advisor for Black Forest Labs and his appearance in a promotional video for its generative AI product, FLUX, a tool designed for creating storyboards.

The guild accused the Oscar-winning director of "turning his back on the human artists" who have contributed to his films throughout his career. In the statement, the ADG asserted that Scorsese was advocating for a tool that circumvents the traditional roles of its members, including art directors, graphic artists, illustrators, production designers, scenic artists, and set designers. The union argued that generative AI products like FLUX are often built by ingesting large amounts of copyrighted work "likely scraped from the internet without consent, credit, compensation, or transparency."

Scorsese's involvement with Black Forest Labs was announced last week. In promotional material, the director discussed...