AI 'Upgrades' to Gongfu Classics Deserve Zero Stars

It's not a better tomorrow to tinker with the works of legendary performers such as Bruce Lee and Jet Li.

- Jason Bailey

When it comes to artificial intelligence (AI), most folks seem to fall into two diametrically opposed camps, according to several polls. There are those who believe it to be nothing less than a technological revolution that will significantly change every aspect of how we live, and others who dismiss it as the emperor's new clothes, an ecologically irresponsible, not-ready-for-prime-time pipe dream that produces error-ridden prose and eye-sore attempts at illustration.

China Film Foundation and its partners' recent announcement of the Kung Fu Film Heritage Project reminded me why I'm in the latter group.

There are certain specific, mostly academic and scientific, instances in which AI can reduce mindless busywork and produce quicker results. But this technology, particularly its "generative" subset, should be kept far, far away from anything resembling art.

China Film Foundation's plans, unveiled at the Shanghai International Film Festival, feature two major AI-driven initiatives. First, the organisation premiered what was promoted as the first animated feature film created entirely by AI called A Better Tomorrow: Cyber Border. It's a reimagining of John Woo's groundbreaking 1986 feature, A Better Tomorrow.

Why anyone would want to see an AI sequel/remake of a nearly 40-year-old action classic is beyond me, that's their choice, though. But Cyber Border remains worrisome in the same way as all the gen AI movie-making we keep hearing about: because it will replace human writers, actors, artists and other craftspeople with automated, soulless junk machines.

These are questions that are being actively argued, with real implications for the future of motion pictures, and we're nowhere close to answers.