Bestselling author shows why AI-generated movies might not be a bad thing

We're used to hearing about the negative side of AI; about how it could replace artists, actors, and filmmakers in the creative process.

Just recently Tom Cruise made a point of saying that “there is nothing like human”, and Nicolas Cage recently revealed that he has refused to sign an AI waver from Amazon , even if it means he will never work for the studio again.

But what if, occasionally, AI makes something possible that would never otherwise have existed? I caught up with author Conn Iggulden to hear how he’s using an AI studio called Authors First to adapt his best selling books about the life of Genghis Khan to the screen — and how it simply wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.

The first thing I asked Iggulden was why he’d gone down the AI route, and if he’d tried a more conventional route first.

TechRadar: Do you think your Genghis Khan books — Wolf of the Planes and Birth of an Empire — would ever have been adapted for the screen without AI? Was there any interest from traditional film or television producers? And what made this approach possible where conventional filmmaking wasn't? Conn Iggulden: The series has been optioned before, yes.

I’ll be discreet over names, but the costs were prohibitive, especially as Mongolia sits between China and Russia and experiences frozen temperatures on the edge of the Gobi desert.

The Emperor series option is still live and regularly renewed.

My Dangerous Book for Boys got one series on Prime when Bryan Cranston became involved as a producer.

Still, I’d given up on the Genghis one ever being made.

All things are possible, of course, but without Game of Thrones money, it just wasn’t possible.

So, no, I don’t believe it would have been made without AI, not this year anyway.

My optimism about AI feels perfectly rational, based on every other aspect of technology.

Conn Iggulden TR: There's a real stigma around using AI in creative industries, with some people dismissing AI-generated films as "slop".

Do you understand that reaction? And what would you say to people who believe AI has no place in filmmaking? CI: I know a young animator who feels the same way.