The Film Academy has opened a competition to design the future Museum of Cinema in the old NO-DO building. The specifications include a clear condition: the use of generative artificial intelligence that replaces human creativity is prohibited. Auxiliary technical tools, such as modeling or rendering software, are allowed, but the central idea must come from a mind with gray matter, not from an algorithm.
Rendering yes, generated script no: the limits of auxiliary AI 🎨
The competition distinguishes between what is creativity and what is mere technical execution. An architect can use computer-aided design software to calculate structures or visualize spaces, but cannot ask a chatbot to generate the museum's conceptual proposal. The rule seeks to prevent the building's identity from being a collage of external data. The jury will value the human process, from the pencil sketch to the physical model.
The NO-DO resurrects, but without deepfakes or ChatGPT scripts 🎬
The old NO-DO building, famous for its aseptic propaganda, now resurrects as a temple of cinema. The paradox is that, to celebrate the seventh art, the Academy prohibits precisely the technology that could generate a making-of of the museum in five seconds. However, architects will be able to use AI to calculate whether the box office can withstand the weight of visitors, but not to decide whether the entrance should be shaped like a clapperboard. Creativity, it seems, is still a matter for humans with coffee and impossible schedules.