Guillermo del Toro AI filmmaking comments focus on how machines can speed through the middle of the creative process, but cannot replace the human work that produces an original idea. In a new IGN interview and AMA report, the filmmaker described creativity as a chain of discoveries, accidents and lived experience rather than a set of existing images rearranged by software.
Guillermo del Toro AI comments focus on what machines cannot experience
Del Toro made the comments after answering a question during an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit on September 9. The fan referred to comments from a 2024 British Film Institute talk, where Del Toro said AI could produce “semi-compelling screensavers” but little more.
“The three quarters of the process that gave you the chance to think of the idea that people don’t think about without that process,” he said. “Meaning, AI can get you to the middle really fast, but there’s a dialectic with the process that gets you to that top 10%.”
Guillermo del Toro
He said that process gives artists time to discover ideas that could not have been planned at the start. His example was the Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth: its design developed from combining a photograph of a manta ray with the poster for Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm, then removing the character’s face and placing its eyes on its hands.
“They are alchemy,” Del Toro said. “And then I said, ‘Take out the face,’ and then I said, ‘Let’s put the eyes on the hands.’ This triangulation happens because I spent a month or two months living with the idea of this creature. And it’s not linear.”
AI filmmaking can reproduce old ideas, Del Toro says
Del Toro compared AI to a fast system for recombining work that already exists. He contrasted that with the slower process of making something that did not exist before.
“AI is like a super-fast engine that makes semi-sentient permutations of things that are already done,” he said. “Creation is things that have never been done. Coming to exist.”
Guillermo del Toro
He also objected to the loss of apprenticeship in creative work. Artists learn by making decisions, seeing what fails and responding to accidents. Del Toro said that artists are never finished learning, regardless of how experienced they become.
“You’re never a master; you’re always an apprentice,” he said.
Guillermo del Toro
In the same discussion, he recalled James Cameron showing him lens flares in Terminator 2. Cameron had deliberately kept the visual imperfections because an accident in an image can make it feel real. Del Toro estimated that about 30% of a great image can happen accidentally.
Del Toro’s position is consistent with comments reported by NPR and WIRED, where he has drawn a line between AI’s use in technical fields and its role in art. He has also said that the loss is not limited to the finished image: removing the work that teaches artists their craft could cut off the next generation of filmmakers.
For more on films coming to the UAE, see what Netflix added in November.
What did Guillermo del Toro say about AI and filmmaking?
Del Toro said AI can rapidly recombine existing material, but cannot replace the human process of discovery that produces something genuinely new.
What is the Pale Man example Guillermo del Toro gave?
He said the Pale Man’s design developed through an unexpected combination of a manta ray photograph and the poster for Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm, followed by months of working through the idea.
Why is apprenticeship important to Del Toro?
He believes artists learn through the slow process of making decisions, responding to accidents and building practical knowledge, and that automation could remove those early opportunities.
