Christopher Nolan Compares Artificial Intelligence To The Atomic Bomb

After a screening of his new film, Oppenheimer Saturday night, director Christopher Nolan suggested that his period piece couldn’t have come at a better time, as we’re in an “Oppenheimer moment,” he said. But this time, the dangerous technology isn’t being created in a lab in a New Mexico lab; it’s coming from Silicon Valley.

Speaking with the BBC, Nolan compared the Manhattan Project, the World War II-era effort to develop the world’s first nuclear weapons, to the current race to develop intelligent algorithms and artificial intelligence. Oppenheimer is “coming at a time when there are a lot of new technologies that people start to worry about the unintended consequences,” Nolan said.

“When you talk to leaders in the field of AI, as I do from time to time, they see this moment right now as their Oppenheimer moment. They’re looking to his story to say, ‘What are our responsibilities? How can we deal with the potential unintended consequences?’ Sadly, for them, there are no easy answers.”

Nolan elaborated on those concerns at a panel Saturday night in New York that followed a preview screening of his film, Variety reports. The panel was moderated by Meet the Press anchor Chuck Todd, who asked Nolan if he thought the tech industry was “re-examining Oppenheimer” as they continue to develop AI.

“They say that they do,” Nolan responded. “It’s helpful that that’s in the conversation, and I hope that that thought process will continue. I am not saying Oppenheimer’s story offers any easy answers to those questions, but it at least can show where some of those responsibilities lie and how people take a breath and think, ‘Okay, what is the accountability?’”

At present, though, Nolan worries that that question of accountability isn’t being asked enough by people in Hollywood. “People in my business talking about it, they just don’t want to take responsibility for whatever that algorithm does,” he said. “Applied to AI, that’s a terrifying possibility. Terrifying.”

The use of AI is one of the sticking points in the current WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the latter of which prompted the stars of Oppenheimer to formally walk off at the red carpet premiere last week.

“With the labor disputes going on in Hollywood right now, a lot of it—when we talk about AI, when we talk about these issues—they’re all ultimately born from the same thing, which is when you innovate with technology, you have to maintain accountability,” Nolan said Saturday. 

Nolan has also stated support of striking actors and writers, and has said that he won’t start work on another film until the strikes conclude. “No, absolutely,” he told the BBC when asked if he’d be writing during the strike period. “It’s very important that everybody understands it is a very key moment in the relationship between working people and Hollywood.”

“This is about jobbing actors, this is about staff writers on television programs trying to raise a family, trying to keep food on the table,” he said. “This is not about me, this is not about the stars of my film.”