Hollywood’s AI Obsession Is Wearing Thin with Audiences

Studios embraced artificial intelligence both as a provocative theme and as a means to speed production, but the commercial and critical returns have been uneven enough that early curiosity is turning into fatigue. Across genres, novelty is wearing thin: horror’s machine‑gone‑wrong motifs feel recycled, and big‑budget action entries that bolt an AI antagonist onto existing franchises often fail to justify the expense. Parallel experiments in AI‑assisted content have made the problem more visible: Darren Aronofsky’s Primordial Soup short series, which reimagines moments from 1776 using generative video tooling, mixes convincing period texture with obvious synthetic faults — distorted faces, lagging mouth‑sync and repeating background figures — and provides limited disclosure about who did which parts of the work. Those faults, and the project's sparse credits, amplify a perception that technological spectacle is being showcased ahead of editorial finish and clear attribution. Outside of cinema, a flood of cheaply produced AI images and short videos on social platforms has changed attention economics, rewarding novelty and outrage and quickening audience desensitization to synthetic material. Platforms and moderation teams are struggling to keep pace as outputs grow more convincing, raising verification costs and leaving users to navigate a more cluttered feed. Prominent creators and commentators, including figures such as Jonathan Nolan, underscore the need for conspicuous provenance, stronger disclosure and continued investment in artisanal practices that sustain craft and collaborative labor. Partnerships between filmmakers and tech firms invite extra scrutiny when they appear to substitute algorithmic shortcuts for human authorship or hide the role of synthetic tools. Labor and ethics debates about automation — in healthcare, journalism and employment — also shape audience readings of fictional AI, increasing expectations that stories interrogate social consequences rather than offer sentimental redemption arcs for surveillance systems. For studios, the commercial lesson is clear: novelty alone no longer guarantees attention or revenue, and dumping generative tools into the pipeline without tighter editorial oversight erodes trust. If the industry pairs generative tools with rigorous craft, transparent provenance and platform‑level standards, AI could deepen storytelling; if it doubles down on technofetishism and opaque tool use, the marketplace (and possibly regulators and unions) will likely keep punishing shallow, opportunistic projects.