Lilly Wachowski

Few have sparked the public’s imagination of the potential horrors and wonders of AI like Lilly Wachowski, who wrote and directed The Matrix in 1999 with her sister Lana. The Matrix and its sequels warned of an AI-controlled dystopia in which humans are enslaved by machines and harvested as an energy source. Their vision has had an outsize influence upon many influential AI philosophers and researchers: the AI thinker Eliezer Yudkowsky, for example, named it one of his favorite movies.

This year, Wachowski has been less focused on AI’s existential threat than how its near-term rollout might exacerbate inequalities, including in the film industry. The Screen Actors Guild is currently locked in a labor dispute with Hollywood studios, and one of the major points of contention is AI’s future role in filmmaking. In June, Wachowski took to Twitter to criticize a future in which AI could be used by movie studios to replace actors. “I do vehemently object to the use of AI as a tool to generate wealth,” she wrote. “Technology should be used to benefit humanity (has Star Trek not taught us anything!?) … not for the ultra rich to continue to f-ck over working folks and eliminate jobs for ever larger salaries and dividend payouts.”

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