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Christopher Nolan voiced his caution about artificial intelligence after a special screening of “Oppenheimer” and drew a comparison between the rapidly evolving technology and his new dramatic feature film about the making of the atomic bomb.
Nolan’s comments came during a conversation following a preview of “Oppenheimer” in New York. Hosted by Meet the Press host Chuck Todd, Nolan and Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Dr. Thom Mason, the physicists Dr. Carlo Rovelli and Dr. Kip Thorne and author Kai Bird, who wrote American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, on which Nolan’s film is based.
“The rise over the last 15 years of companies using words like algorithm – not knowing what they mean in any meaningful mathematical sense – these people don’t know what an algorithm is,” Nolan shared at the screening. “People at my company talk about it, they just don’t want to take responsibility for whatever this algorithm is doing.”
“Transferred to AI, this is a frightening possibility. Frightening,” Nolan continued. “Not least because AI systems will eventually flow into defensive infrastructures. You will be responsible for nuclear weapons. To say that this is a separate entity from the person that exercises, programs and deploys this AI is doomed for us. It has to be about responsibility. We need to hold people accountable for what they do with the tools at their disposal.”
Nolan’s new feature film tells how J. Robert Oppenheimer was commissioned by the US military powers to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. Cillian Murphy plays the theoretical physicist and leads a cast that includes Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr. and Florence Pugh.
Nolan’s comments come at a time when the entertainment industry has almost ground to a halt and SAG-AFTRA ordered a strike Thursday to join WGA members on the picket line. Among numerous other disagreements with studios, the issue of AI and its potential existential impact on labor practices in the entertainment industry is a key issue for both unions.
“Given the labor disputes that are going on in Hollywood right now, a lot of it — if we talk about AI, if we talk about these issues — ultimately all came out of the same thing, which is innovating with technology, which is yourself.” must uphold our responsibilities,” Nolan explained.
“Do you think we’ll check Oppenheimer again? As our understanding of quantum physics continues as we continue to tame the atom,” Todd asked at one point on the panel.
“I hope so,” Nolan said. “For example, right now, when I’m talking to the leading researchers in the field of AI, they are – right now – literally calling this their Oppenheimer moment. They look to history to say, “What is the responsibility of scientists developing new technologies that could have unintended consequences?”
“You think Silicon Valley is thinking that right now?” Todd interjected. “You think they say this is an Oppenheimer moment?”
“They say they do,” Nolan said after a pause, then chuckled. “It’s helpful that that’s being discussed and I hope that thought process continues. I’m not saying that Oppenheimer’s story provides easy answers to those questions, but it can at least show where some of those responsibilities lie and how people take a deep breath and think, ‘okay, what’s the responsibility?'”
In an article published by The New York Times in May, AI pioneer Dr. Geoffrey Hinton expresses his life’s work regrets. Hinton’s work at the University of Toronto laid the groundwork for the tech industry’s investment in generative artificial intelligence, which powers chatbots like ChatGPT.
“I console myself with the usual excuse: If I hadn’t done it, someone else would have,” said Dr. Hinton of the Times. “It’s hard to imagine how to stop the bad actors from using it for bad things.”
Universal Pictures is bringing Oppenheimer to theaters on July 21.