Christopher Nolan calls AI a glass Trojan horse
The Odyssey director said young audiences’ suspicion of AI is “pretty encouraging” as debate over the technology keeps gripping Hollywood.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
Christopher Nolan has found a very old metaphor for a very modern fight: artificial intelligence as a Trojan horse, except this one is see-through.
The two-time Oscar-winning director made the comparison during an interview on the Hugo Décrypte YouTube channel, while discussing public suspicion of AI and the speed at which the technology has spread.
“I think AI is a Trojan horse that everybody knows the Greeks are inside,” Nolan said. “It’s a transparent horse, it’s made of glass. Everybody can see what’s going on inside of there.”
Nolan, whose film adaptation of The Odyssey has been a flashpoint in the wider AI and culture-war conversation, said he sees a striking level of resistance to the technology, especially among younger people.
He said AI has “taken over Wall Street” in recent years, but argued that its march into public life has been met with unusual suspicion.
“I’ve never seen a technology advancing so rapidly, so completely rejected by the public,” Nolan said in the interview. “Everybody’s suspicion of it is so extreme, particularly young people.”
The filmmaker pointed to online reactions to AI-made videos as an example, saying people around his children’s age quickly label such material “AI slop.” Nolan called that response “a very healthy skepticism.”
“Technology is always going to give us great gifts, as you say, but it has to be viewed with skepticism,” he said.
Nolan added that the motives of people promoting AI should be scrutinized too, saying that approach would help society get more from new technology than “blind faith that everything’s going to be great.” He said it was “pretty encouraging” to see young people responding with suspicion.
The comments arrive as Elon Musk has been pushing his own AI-centered challenge to Nolan’s The Odyssey. Deadline reported that Musk said X’s AI tool Grok Imagine “will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer” by the end of the year.
Deadline has also reported that Musk and others criticized the ethnicity of some cast members in Nolan’s adaptation. Nolan has dismissed that backlash as “irrelevant,” saying adaptation allows for such choices.
AI remains one of Hollywood’s loudest pressure points. Deadline reported that SAG-AFTRA has endorsed the Trump administration’s AI policy framework, which calls for congressional legislation covering parental controls, intellectual property protections, First Amendment protections, AI workforce development, data-center power generation and the removal of legal barriers limiting AI innovation.
Deadline also reported that President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month creating a voluntary framework for AI companies to give the government access to new models for a 30-day review before release.
Nolan’s latest comments place him firmly among the high-profile filmmakers urging caution as AI tools become faster, cheaper and more visible across entertainment and the internet.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.