Martin Scorsese joins AI startup Black Forest Labs, sparking debate over Hollywood's AI adoption
11 Sources
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Martin Scorsese becomes the latest -- and most unlikely -- Hollywood voice for AI
Martin Scorsese has signed on as a partner and adviser to an AI image-generation startup Black Forest Labs, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. The caveat is that one of the world's most famous living directors is using the tech solely for storyboarding. "For 70 years, I've been creating my
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Martin Scorsese's reported AI "embrace" doesn't live up to the hype.
Fresh off interviewing the chatbot-powered stunt that is Tilly Norwood, the NYT tells us of Martin Scorsese's advisor and partner arrangement with Black Forest Labs (whose Flux tech has powered xAI's image generation) in what it calls "a clear sign of Hollywood's softening stance on artificial
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Martin Scorsese gets backlash after endorsing 'creatively freeing' AI
Legendary film-maker Martin Scorsese has stepped into the fierce debate over the rise of artificial intelligence in Hollywood by endorsing an AI tool that he says has been "creatively freeing" in the pre-production process. The Taxi Driver, Goodfellas and Wolf of Wall Street director has become an
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Martin Scorsese Feels the Power of the Dark Side, Jumps on the AI Bandwagon
What's the opposite of Absolute Cinema? According to the New York Times, Martin Scorsese has accepted a role as an advisor for a generative AI firm and, even more devastatingly, has apparently started to use the technology during the storyboarding process for his next film. The company in question
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Director Martin Scorsese Joins AI Image Startup Black Forest Labs
Martin Scorsese has joined the AI image company Black Forest Labs as an adviser, a decision that has shocked some in the film and creative communities. The legendary director -- who has been nominated for an Academy Award 16 times, winning one in 2007 for The Departed -- appeared to limit his
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Martin Scorsese has officially joined the AI camp and it's not what anyone expected
Martin Scorsese has partnered with AI startup Black Forest Labs to use generative AI for storyboarding Hollywood's complicated romance with artificial intelligence just got a whole lot more interesting. Martin Scorsese, the 83-year-old director behind Goodfellas, Raging Bull, and The Departed, has
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Film Community Aghast as Martin Scorsese Extolls AI Startup, Says He Now Uses AI for Storyboards
Can't-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech The film community is in meltdown after acclaimed director Martin Scorsese promoted a new AI startup called Black Forest Labs, saying that he's already using its tech to help plan his movies. Scorsese revealed this collaboration in
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R-AI-ging Bull: Why are people upset with Martin Scorsese?
Martin Scorsese is at the heart of the ever-growing debate regarding the rise of AI in Hollywood. The director of 'Taxi Driver' and 'Wolf of Wall Street' has endorsed an AI tool which he has described as "creatively freeing" in the pre-production process. How can you be mad at Martin
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Absolute Cinema? Martin Scorsese Used AI to Help Storyboard His Next Movie
It's a somewhat strange headline-heavy week for one of the titans of global cinema: One day after popping up on the cover of Charli XCX's new album, Martin Scorsese has announced his backing of a new artificial intelligence start-up called Black Forest Labs. Per The New York Times, Scorsese signed
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Martin Scorsese Teams Up With AI Company, Says Tech Was "Creatively Freeing" for Storyboard Use: AI "Allowed Us to Move Faster
Martin Scorsese is teaming up with the artificial intelligence company Black Forest Labs, where he will serve as an advisor with the research lab. The Academy Award winner said in a statement released Tuesday that he's utilizing the company's FLUX technology to assist in creating
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There was no need, but Martin Scorsese has decided to give in to AI
Martin Scorsese is my favorite living director, alongside Steven Spielberg. They are two heavyweights, after all, and as cliché as it sounds, it's normal for your average film buff to hold them in high regard... which doesn't mean they can't be criticized when they do something objectionable. This
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Legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese has become an adviser to AI image-generation startup Black Forest Labs, using the technology for storyboarding. The 83-year-old director says the tool helps him communicate his vision faster during pre-production, but the move has drawn criticism from industry professionals who fear job displacement and the erosion of human creativity in filmmaking.
Martin Scorsese Partners with Black Forest Labs for AI Storyboarding
Martin Scorsese has signed on as a partner and adviser to Black Forest Labs, an AI image-generation startup, marking a significant moment in the ongoing debate about AI in film industry adoption
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. The 83-year-old Oscar-winning director is using the technology specifically for storyboarding, a process he has personally handled for seven decades. "For 70 years, I've been creating my own storyboards," Scorsese said in a statement to The New York Times, explaining that the tool helps him communicate his vision to cinematographers and production designers far faster and more efficiently5
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Source: Rolling Stone
Black Forest Labs is a 70-person company headquartered in Freiburg, Germany, and powers image features inside Adobe, Canva, Microsoft, and Meta. The startup was last valued at $3.25 billion by investors including BroadLight Capital, co-funded by Scorsese's talent manager Rick Yorn [1](https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/02/martin-scorsese-becomes-the-latest-and-most-unlikely- Hollywood-voice-for-ai/). The company was founded by the team behind Stable Diffusion and makes the FLUX AI image generator
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.Limited Scope Raises Questions About Hollywood and AI
Scorsese's endorsement, while limited in scope to pre-production tasks, represents what many see as Hollywood's softening stance toward AI technology
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. The director emphasized the practical benefits during the creative process: "I recently tested this out on a scene and the ability to visualize and immediately share the storyboard was creatively freeing. During the pre-production process, time costs money, and this allowed us to move faster without sacrificing quality or craft"3
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Source: The Verge
In an announcement video, Scorsese is seen giving instructions to create a wintry town in Eastern Europe, which is generated from prompts entered by the Black Forest Labs team
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. The filmmaker framed his decision within the context of cinema's evolution, calling it a "young medium, only around 125 years old" and saying "we have to be open to how it can evolve"3
.Industry Backlash Highlights Job Displacement Concerns
The announcement drew sharp criticism from storyboard artists and other film industry professionals who fear the impact of generative AI on their livelihoods. Karla Ortiz, who worked in the art department on films including Avengers: Endgame and Black Panther, wrote on X: "He throws every single storyboard artist he's ever worked with under the bus, as he demolishes their livelihoods with models that are likely trained on those storyboard artist's same works"
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.Animation director Samuel Deats added: "It takes literally seconds for me to storyboard a shot, there is absolutely no reason to need AI built on the stolen work of millions of artists to storyboard your artistic vision, have some damn pride and respect your peers"
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. The controversy underscores broader anxieties about AI for storyboarding replacing human jobs, even as defenders argue the technology serves as just another tool for technological advancements in filmmaking.Related Stories
Director's History with Technology and Future Implications
This isn't Scorsese's first embrace of new technology. He pointed out that he used 3D in 2011's Hugo and de-ageing AI technology for 2019's The Irishman
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. The director has consistently expressed openness to technological innovation when it serves storytelling. In 2023, he said he hoped AI would have a positive impact on cinema, and in 2024 at the Berlin Film Festival, he advised filmmakers to "not let the technology scare us" and to "let us control the technology and put it in the right direction"4
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Source: PetaPixel
Scorsese isn't alone among high-profile directors exploring AI. Darren Aronofsky's studio used AI to recreate the American Revolution, Steven Soderbergh has used it in a documentary about John Lennon, and filmmaker James Cameron serves on the board of Stability AI
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. However, others like Guillermo Del Toro said last year that he would "rather die" than use AI3
.While Scorsese isn't advocating for AI to replace the human element in final productions, industry observers note that storyboarding is a job, and not every director creates their own boards
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. Some directors will inevitably embrace this technology in favor of hiring human storyboard artists, potentially diminishing the collaborative nature of the creative process. The debate centers on whether AI technology serves as a productivity tool or threatens to erode the human craftsmanship that defines cinema.References
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