George Lucas likens AI sceptics to luddites clinging to horses and carts

George Lucas has compared critics of artificial intelligence in filmmaking to the 19th-century Luddites who smashed machinery, arguing that the technology represents the next inevitable evolution of the medium he helped to transform.

Speaking at a technology conference in San Francisco, the Star Wars creator said the resistance to AI tools among some filmmakers and writers was "exactly the same argument people made against sound, against colour, against digital cameras and against computer-generated effects." He added: "Every one of those turned out to be a tool that made films better, not worse. AI is the next tool. You can cling to your horse and cart, but the train is leaving."

The remarks place Lucas firmly on one side of a debate that has become the most divisive in the entertainment industry. The 2025 writers' and actors' strikes were fought in significant part over the use of AI, with unions securing protections that limit how studios can use the technology to replace human labour. Many filmmakers, including Christopher Nolan and Greta Gerwig, have publicly stated they will not use generative AI in their work.

Lucas's position carries particular weight because of his role in pioneering the digital effects that transformed Hollywood. Industrial Light and Magic, the company he founded in 1975 to create the effects for Star Wars, developed many of the technologies that sceptics of his era insisted would never replace practical effects — and which are now standard tools across the industry.

The comparison to Luddites drew criticism from some quarters, with the Writers Guild noting that the Luddites were skilled workers fighting to protect their livelihoods, not technophobes. But Lucas's broader argument — that artists will adapt and that the tool matters less than the vision behind it — is one that the industry will continue to grapple with as AI capabilities advance.