Continuing that unbroken streak of bad artistic decisions towards an inevitable Star Wars Special 50th Anniversary Slop Edition reissue.

“If you want AI that tells you when something is fake and where it came from, AI can do that,” he says. “Humans can’t, we’re not that smart.

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George Lucas Goes To The Dark Side, Says AI Is ‘The Future’

By Kenneth Shepard Published July 14, 2026

The Star Wars creator compares not using AI to riding a horse in the face of cars

I would like to think that not every prestigious filmmaker is vulnerable to the AI propaganda, but it feels like we’re getting new stories of someone partnering with or advocating for the use of artificial intelligence as the future of cinematic storytelling every day. The newest addition to the list? Mr. Star Wars himself, George Lucas, and man is his reasoning a bummer.

In an interview with A Rabbit’s Foot, Lucas discussed his career and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, opening this fall in L.A., which will be showcasing decades of human-made art and spotlighting, as its website calls it, “stories and people who tell them.” In the lengthy interview, Lucas shares some meaningful insights into filmmaking, discusses his collaborations with people like Indiana Jones director Steven Spielberg, and even offers some pithy observations about the pitfalls of testing films with focus groups and whether or not the average viewer is actually in touch with what they like about movies.

“If they don’t like a character, that’s interesting, and as a filmmaker I want to find out why,” he says. “But when the studios hear that, they take the wrong message. They let the audience actually make the movie. Of course, now they go crazy with that. Now, it’s all about what the fans think. That isn’t how you make the movie. You make a movie by finding someone that knows how to make movies, that has a story to tell and is passionate about it.”

Jarringly, this advocacy for human-led storytelling is followed by claims that AI is “the future,” and Lucas compares not using the new technology to relying on antiquated transportation in the face of cars.

“Artificial intelligence means it’s much easier for us to make movies,” he tells A Rabbit’s Foot. “It’s very much like sitting here saying, ‘Well, I believe the horse and the buggy is really where it’s at. These cars, they break down, they need gas, there’s all kinds of problems with them and pretty soon they’ll be making them into tanks, and then they’ll be killing people. It’s terrible.’ There’s nothing you can do about it. That’s progress, it’s the future.”

Though he acknowledged the risks of using the plagiarism machine when A Rabbit’s Foot questioned him further, he doubled down by highlighting other benefits he believes AI will provide in the future.

“If you want AI that tells you when something is fake and where it came from, AI can do that,” he says. “Humans can’t, we’re not that smart. The whole idea is you’re a human being, you’re responsible for what you say and what you do, and if you’re doing something that’s illegal you should be punished for that. Whatever you do, you should be recognized. It’s just like real life.”

There’s a scene in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back where Luke Skywalker is training alongside Yoda and learning the ins and outs of being a Jedi, and he asks if the dark side of the Force is stronger than the light side. Yoda replies that it’s not, but that many fall to it because it is “quicker, easier, more seductive.” That movie was released 46 years ago, but it is certainly illustrative of the logic Lucas is using here. 

He advocates for the importance of human-made art, but then argues that using technology that is notorious for stealing from humans and whose results generally look like shit compared to work made by hand would make the filmmaking process “easier.” It’s “the future” and there’s “nothing you can do about it”? It’s contradictory to believe both that it’s the human spirit that makes great films and also that a technology that’s being used to remove the human element from the process is the future of making movies. If that makes me naive and means I’m fighting against the inevitable, then I will go down swinging.

Who is surprised by this?

He was making slop versions of his own movies before AI.

common George Lucas L

Classic George L, I wouldn't have expected any more from him

Well yeah, he’s a billionaire, of course he looks after his own class’s interests.

The guy that essentially added lasers to Japanese movies and somehow became a multi-billionaire is a fan of stealing other's work with minimal effort and reusing it without permission?

I'm shocked. Shocked I say.

I have always thought ai was like the Jar Jar Binks of computer programs.

Frank Herbert wasn't around to tell him how to think about it, I guess.

Lucas creating star wars doesnt mean he's any sort of genius.

yeah I'm not surprised, I watched the prequels. This guy was a legend in the 70s, that is like 50 years ago.

He hasn't done anything great since co-writing Willow 40 years ago. Go to his IMDB, he's lived out of star wars nostalgia since then, and all of them after the initial trilogy was a downgrade.

i mean, he was there all along. he pioneered the all green screen wave of automation in movies. the abuse of green screen was the slop before ai was around. to him it’s just cutting out all the vestiges of imperfection still greasing the machine

Guy with famously bad takes has bad take.

I hate AI as much as the next person but the Pandora's box is open. A lot of people don't want to admit it but AI, despite its current limitations, does have potential. Many people say that AI hit its limit and peak but i would not be very dismissive of it yet. Plenty of technologies were hindered by the limitations of their time but gradually overcame those. It took renewable energy at least fifty years to overcome the storage problem, their respective technical limits (solar panels for example did not have great photovoltaic system) and upfront cost before it became more commercially viable.

it probably produces dialog that sounds more like it was written by a human

He became irrelevant the moment he sold the Star Wars franchise to Disney, and it's all been downhill from there (both for him and the franchise). Fuck him.

"Goes to the Dark Side"

Someone never saw the rerelease of the original series.

Lucas' best work was under an editor, whenever he got the full reigns, the product suffered.

Its weird that he really was on the forefront once because he did physical effects with interesting camera shots. it felt new and different.

AI is not going to give you that, it will suck. CGI sucks already too.

Oh well not like he is relevant. A new hope was at least interesting, but its been nothing after that anyways.

https://www.techspot.com/news/113114-christopher-nolan-believes-gen-z-push-back-against.html

And then we have actual creatives who get it.

Old Man Succumbs to Chatbot Flattery, volume 25841.

But also, Lucas was always exchanted by cgi, even when it looked way worse than practical effects.

No this isn't abnormal. He's been a shit for decades now.

Lucas has never seen a technology he wasn't willing to shoehorn and abuse in one of his films.

He's like the polar opposite of James Cameron.

Anyone who saw the Special Editions and expected anything else deserves to be unpleasantly surprised right now

GL already turned when he sold over to Disney. He himself was very limiting towards the progression of Star Wars even before that. I'll admit there are very convincing AI attempts online that IMO actually outdo what Disney has come out with since they've won rights, but that alone doesn't justify using AI.

What this all boils down to is that Disney should not hold the rights. At the end of the day, these AI users are still putting down some kind of story and better dialogue which Disney does not want to follow. They've forgone the real essence and telling of Star Wars and have replaced it with a very Disney vibe that appeals to what Disney chooses to. They've left out the fans entirely.

Instead of interviewing a rich, famous, busy person, wouldn't it be easier to ask an AI to pretend to be that person, and interview the AI?

Or even to ask the AI to just write both parts of the interview itself? Wouldn't that just be helping interviewers get the stories they want to share out into the world?

I'm sure he'll make gobs of money off of it, as contradictory as the fan base is they will fill the theaters

I'm sure this thread will be full of rational discussion.