‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ Arthur C. Clarke

The AI genie is out of the bottle, and already impacting creative industries like cinema. Obviously, as a studio who still employ traditional artists and sculptors, Alchemy have also had to decide on how to interact with such technological advances. Particularly when many of their competitors are increasingly using them to cut corners, or even dispense with their creative teams completely. We asked Alchemy’s co-founder and chairman Geoff Kayson for his take on the matter. ‘I am both disturbed and saddened by the relentless – and furtive – takeover of all traditional forms of human creativity, skill, and individual expression by digital technologies’ sighed Geoff. ‘The now ubiquitous use of computer generated art and AI design, coupled with 3D printing technology and automated production is killing originality and reducing our world to just cloned concepts.’

He remains, however, pragmatic: ‘Whilst appreciating these incredible advances, as always, they must be viewed as a double-edged sword. At Alchemy we would use such technologies as time-saving tools, but never to replace our human imaginations, skills, and talents.’

Few if any technological developments have offered as much promise, or threatened as much harm, as Artificial Intelligence. On the one hand, it promises to revolutionise areas like medical research. On the other, it threatens jobs, or at the worst extreme, our very existence. It’s possible to view the debate from many angles. Even through a Gothic, or occultic lens…

Experts from both the fields of science and the arts have seen parallels between the AI debate and the legend of Faust. Faust was reputedly a medieval German doctor whose thirst for knowledge and power led him to make a pact with unholy forces, leading to disastrous consequences. His story has inspired classic opera, poetry, and literature – works that some feel are gaining new resonance due to recent technological developments.

Data scientist, Professor Colin W.P. Lewis penned a post for his blog, The One Percent Rule, entitled ‘Faust: A Cautionary Tale for AI’. ‘Today, we stand on the precipice of our own Faustian moment’ observes Lewis, ‘but instead of parchment contracts and sulphuric pacts, we have neural networks and quantum processors. Artificial Intelligence, our modern alchemical quest, promises to transmute data into scientific breakthroughs, calculation into cognition. Yet, like Faust, we may be making a deal whose consequences we barely comprehend…’

There are even more obvious parallels in the story of Frankenstein, the scientist whose blind ambition leads him to unleash a monster. The legend has most recently been interpreted by the acclaimed Mexican director Guillermo del Toro. Curiously, del Toro was at pains to emphasise that his film was not intended as a metaphor for the perils of AI. ‘I’m not afraid of artificial intelligence’ he joked at the Venice Film Festival. ‘I’m afraid of natural stupidity.’ This shouldn’t however be taken as an endorsement of the technology. Del Toro famously shouted ‘F*** AI’ at a new York preview screening of his Frankenstein, later observing that he’d ‘rather die’ than employ the technology in his work.

Nobody is sure where AI will take us. But Alchemy, at least, remain determined not to succumb to technology’s temptations to remove humanity from the creative equation.