LOS ANGELES – Hollywood just hit the tipping point in its acceptance of artificial intelligence (AI).

American film-maker Martin Scorsese, the living embodiment of cinema as high art and a conscience for modern Hollywood, on June 2 threw his weight behind an AI startup that specialises in image generation.

In a statement and an accompanying video made in his New York City office, Scorsese discussed how he had used technology from Black Forest Labs, a fast-rising AI venture, during pre-production for a new film.

“I’m interested in the intersection of technology and storytelling, and seeing how that can push the bounds of creativity to create deeper and richer experiences for audiences,” Scorsese, 83, said in the statement, which was shared exclusively with The New York Times. “Remember, cinema is a young medium, only around 125 years old, so we have to be open to how it can evolve.”

Black Forest Labs said Scorsese, a 16-time Academy Award nominee who won Best Director for The Departed in 2007, had signed on as a partner and an adviser in 2025.

When generative AI became widely available in 2022, Hollywood’s creative class mobilised against it as an existential threat. The technology allows people to create text, photo-realistic images and videos – in an instant – simply by describing what they want to see. What would prevent studios from substituting software for writers, actors, visual effects artists, animators and others?

The anxiety was so extreme that protections against generative AI became a central demand in the 2023 strikes involving more than 170,000 Hollywood workers. Studios began to treat AI as a radioactive topic.

But the entertainment industry’s stance has recently softened to a remarkable degree.

American actress Demi Moore, while serving as a juror at the recent Cannes Film Festival, told reporters that fighting AI “is a battle that we will lose, so to find ways in which we can work with it, I think, is a more valuable path to take”.