David Ellison, the current Paramount boss and soon to be overlord of Warner Bros. as well, is quite excited by the prospects of artificial intelligence. Rather than say it's going to replace filmmakers, he instead believes the technology can assist in making films quicker and letting people "tell better stories."
Ellison explained his stance on AI in an interview with Deadline: "The thing that I think you're going to see enable basically what artificial intelligence and these model-based kind of GPU [graphic processing unit] pipelines that are in the process of being created are going to allow for is to actually help you tell better stories because you're going to be able to iterate faster. If you can make the movie 15 times, 20 times, get that audience feedback, you're going to be able to tell better stories that entertain your audience."
Ellison pointed to the example of Pixar, where the goal is to "be wrong as fast as possible." Whereas they would use human work to decide what will and won't impress audiences, it seems Ellison sees a future where AI can do that for filmmakers. Coming up with the bad ideas until it lands on a good one. Whether that's something that will maintain the artful process of filmmaking, we don't know, but it may help in making these films faster.