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Paul Schrader, the genius behind some of the most iconic movies ever made, has just given us all a hot take that will leave you scratching your head. The man, who gave us the gritty masterpiece Taxi Driver and the existential gut-punch First Reformed, is now riding the AI wave.
Schrader believes AI, specifically ChatGPT, is the next big thing in film, where ideas are generated.
Of course, his words have set the fire ablaze with reactions—what else can happen when you put a legendary filmmaker in the same room as a digital assistant?
A user noted: “You people can’t do ANYTHING anymore dear lord.”
Another user stated: “We are so cooked as a species.”
A user stated: “Just say you can't come up with nothing new and original and move it along.”
Meanwhile, a user suggested: “well if he likes it sm let chatGPT take away only his job.”
A comment read: “I guess we’ll just never watch a good movie ever again.”
Another comment read: “uhhmm no thanks, ill stick to the human touch 😉”
A user went on to state: "artistic integrity has left the building."
Schrader's experience with ChatGPT
On January 17, 2025, Paul Schrader took to Facebook, dropping the post. Schrader spilled the tea on his experience using ChatGPT to generate film concepts, and folks, he was shook. He stated:
"I'M STUNNED. I just asked ChatGPT for 'an idea for Paul Schrader film.' Then Paul Thomas Anderson. Then Quentin Tarantino... Every idea ChatGPT came up with (in a few seconds) was good. And original. And fleshed out".
Some immediately took out their pitchforks and questioned whether we were actually ready to let a machine take over our storytelling.
He was critical of the conventional writing process and asked why a writer needs months to search for ideas when a machine can deliver them in seconds.
But that was not enough for Schrader. He had already outdone himself by submitting an old script to ChatGPT for review. As per him, ChatGPT came back with notes that Schrader thought were better than the feedback he gets from film executives. Shots fired.
His reflections on AI's capabilities led him to conclude, "I've come to realize that AI is smarter than I am."
In his mind, this moment was as earth-shattering as chess master Garry Kasparov who said in 1997 that IBM’s Deep Blue was the real king of the game.
Even actor Ben Affleck shares the same sentiments. He was quoted as saying by the Independent:
"What AI is going to do is going to disintermediate the laborious, less creative and more costly aspects of filmmaking that will allow costs to be brought down, that will lower the barrier for entry, that will allow more voices to be heard, that will make it easier for the people that want to make ‘Good Will Huntings’ to go out and make it."
About Schrader's filmmaking
Paul Schrader barged in with Taxi Driver (1976), the script that made him iconic and that reimagined the urban crime drama cinematic. Directed by Martin Scorsese, Taxi Driver was a movie shock that effectively changed the audience.
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Schrader consolidated that film with Raging Bull (1980) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). He decided to grab the director’s chair with his first film which was Blue Collar (1978) – a gritty drama chronicling around working-class American metaphors for the state of society.
He gave us American Gigolo in the year 1980. Then, in 1985, he hit us with Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. And let’s not forget First Reformed (2017), where Schrader returned to the director's seat, which brought a slow-burning spiritual breakdown for the cinema.
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