Martin Scorsese Embraces Artificial Intelligence as Advisor at Black Forest Labs
The 83-year-old director is backing and serving as an advisor for an AI upstart called Black Forest Labs and played with AI during preproduction on a new film.
Objective Facts
The 83-year-old director is backing and serving as an advisor for an AI upstart called Black Forest Labs and played with AI during preproduction on a new film. Scorsese signed on as a partner and adviser to Black Forest Labs last year, with his involvement made public through a press release and video showing how he used the company's FLUX tool to storyboard What Happens at Night. Black Forest Labs CEO Robin Rombach, who co-founded the Freiburg, Germany-based firm in 2024, told the New York Times that Scorsese's partnership represents "a great proof point that this works." Scorsese's manager Rick Yorn fostered the connection through his investment firm BroadLight Capital, an investor in Black Forest Labs, and CAA co-founder Michael Ovitz also helped seal the partnership. In his statement, Scorsese said he's utilizing the company's FLUX technology to assist in creating storyboards and expressed interest in "the intersection of technology and storytelling, and seeing how that can push the bounds of creativity."
Left-Leaning Perspective
Left-leaning critics and artists rapidly condemned Scorsese's partnership. Concept artist Karla Ortiz, who has worked on Marvel projects, posted on social media that Scorsese "throws every single storyboard artist he's ever worked with under the bus, as he demolishes their livelihoods with models that are likely trained on those storyboard artist's same works." Director and animator Sam Deats also criticized the move sharply, writing: "It takes literally seconds for me to storyboard a shot, there is absolutely no reason to need AI built on the stolen work of millions of artists to storyboard your vision, have some damn pride and respect your peers." Director Boots Riley, who directed "I Love Boosters," speculated on X that Scorsese received significant financial compensation and therefore doesn't care about AI's impact, while also mocking Scorsese's framing that filmmaking needed better tools for creativity. The critique centers on several ethical concerns: storyboard artist and illustrator Karla Ortiz argued that AI systems are frequently trained on works made by human artists without their permission, accusing Scorsese of working against the same professionals who have helped realize his films; critics emphasize that the dispute is not only about speed and efficiency but also about ethics, ownership and respect for creative labour. Additional concerns highlight that many AI models are trained on artists' work without consent, and if directors like Scorsese use AI for storyboarding, storyboard artists could find themselves out of a job. While notable film industry figures like Seth Rogen and Hannah Einbinder have been outspoken critics of generative AI, some left-leaning observers fear that Scorsese's influence on the pro-AI side could reshape how movies are made in coming years, lending prestige to automation in creative work.
Right-Leaning Perspective
Scorsese himself made the clearest right-leaning case for AI adoption, stating in a video made at his New York office that he's "interested in the intersection of technology and storytelling" and that "cinema is a young medium, only around 125 years old, so we have to be open to how it can evolve." Robin Rombach, CEO of Black Forest Labs, expressed enthusiasm about Scorsese's involvement, saying "I am super excited about the fact that someone like Martin Scorsese — one of the greatest, most impressive filmmakers to exist — is using our technology." Rombach framed the use of AI in filmmaking as continuing to be a divisive topic, but positioned Scorsese's adoption as validation of the technology's viability. Pro-AI industry voices emphasize practical benefits: filmmakers rely on technology to make their films as efficiently as possible and at lower cost; Scorsese's films are generally lengthy epics with months-long production schedules, but companies touting AI tools claim they can help drastically cut production timelines, with Acme claiming its tools can cut shooting schedules by 60% to 70%. Scorsese framed his partnership as advancing "the bounds of creativity to create deeper and richer experiences for audiences," citing his previous use of 3D and de-aging technology as precedent for embracing emerging tools within filmmaking. Pro-adoption voices note that while filmmakers like Guillermo del Toro have disavowed AI altogether, others like Scorsese advocate for its use as a new tool for creatives, with figures like Demi Moore arguing at Cannes that resisting AI "is a battle that we will lose, so to find ways in which we can work with it, I think, is a more valuable path to take."
Deep Dive
Hollywood's relationship with AI has oscillated from complete rejection to relatively enthusiastic adoption over a short period, reflecting both technological advances and the film industry's financial pressures to reduce production costs and schedules. Scorsese's endorsement places him among a growing cohort of prominent directors taking public positions on AI, though opinions remain sharply divided: James Cameron joined Stability AI's board while Guillermo del Toro said he would "rather die" than use generative AI. This partnership reflects Hollywood's increasing embrace of AI following a writers' strike in 2023 sparked by concerns about the technology's impact, even as many in the industry remain on the fence. The core disagreement centers not simply on technical capability but on fundamental questions about ethics, ownership, and respect for creative labor. Critics worry the shift threatens creative livelihoods and argue that implementing automation early in production risks exploiting human artistry, while supporters emphasize that AI can help films achieve efficiency at lower cost, and that Scorsese's lengthy, ambitious productions are precisely where such tools could deliver measurable benefits. Scorsese has publicly stated he uses FLUX only for storyboarding, but his adoption "marks the technology's influence on the earliest stages of making a movie," and there is "no limit on how directors may weave it into a film's workflow," as director Steven Soderbergh's wholesale use of AI in his Lennon documentary demonstrates. Unresolved questions include broader union negotiations: Directors Guild chair Christopher Nolan told reporters in February that directors must navigate "myriad issues" over "control of our work and how it might be manipulated through AI" and that "we don't want innovation to just be an excuse to pay our members less." Whether Scorsese's embrace represents a major industry milestone or a footnote in the broader AI debate depends entirely on how the technology develops in this iterative era, and even filmmakers bullish on AI remain uncertain of what future it will bring.