‘Wicked' director drags Bay Area tech companies for ‘freaking scary' AI

San Francisco Chronicle​

29-04-2025

Despite growing up in Silicon Valley, Jon M. Chu isn't a fan of artificial intelligence.
The ' Wicked ' and ' Crazy Rich Asians ' director spoke candidly about the use of AI in the entertainment industry during the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books over the weekend, criticizing the unauthorized use of copyrighted Hollywood materials to train generative AI.
'There was an initial sin that I think we're not over yet, which is they gathered all the data. They took all the scripts, they took all the movies,' he said of the tech companies behind such products, many of which are based in the Bay Area.
Chu added that he doesn't think that the Hollywood studios who owned these materials kicked up enough of a fuss.
'It feels like they're saying, 'We're past it, move on,'' he explained on Sunday, April 27, noting that he personally could 'never forgive that.'
Just last month, AI-generated art that mimics the style of Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli went viral on social media. The trend thrilled many Studio Ghibli fans, who wasted no time sharing their creations online. But others, such as Robin Williams' daughter, Zelda Williams, were furious.
Williams pointed out how the studio's founder, Hayao Miyazaki, had a personal distaste for AI and would 'absolutely despise the technological piracy and negative effects on our environment.'
'I can't stop you from using the stupid, water wasting s—ty facsimile machines, in the same way you can't stop me from talking about how deeply empty life will become if we regulate the pursuit of art or knowledge to a machine,' she wrote in an Instagram post last month.
Though Chu seems to share the sentiment, he kept a positive outlook over the weekend, noting that although he finds generative AI to be 'freaking scary,' he doesn't think that 'the robots choose what we decide is valuable.'
'We decide, and that's very empowering for me,' he said.
Chu was at the Times event to discuss his memoir, 'Viewfinder,' which was released last July. In addition to his literary venture, the Palo Alto-born director was recently announced as executive producer of a new series based on his 2018 box office hit, 'Crazy Rich Asians,' for Max along with the film's co-writer Adele Lim and Kevin Kwan, whose book series inspired the film.
He is also working on adaptations of Britney Spears' memoir, 'The Woman in Me,' and the action-adventure video game 'Split Fiction.'
His highly-anticipated follow-up to 'Wicked,' 'Wicked: For Good,' is due out Nov. 21.