Guillermo del Toro says he will never use generative AI in his movies

LOS ANGELES — Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro said he would “rather die” than use generative AI in his work while promoting his Netflix adaptation of “Frankenstein.”

“AI, particularly generative AI — I am not interested, nor will I ever be interested. I’m 61, and I hope to be able to remain uninterested in using it at all until I croak,” he said while speaking to NPR on Thursday. “The other day, somebody wrote me an email, said, ‘What is your stance on AI?’ And my answer was very short. I said, ‘I’d rather die.'”

He said artificial intelligence inspired some aspects of his adaptation of Mary Shelley’s gothic novel character Victor Frankenstein, played by Oscar Isaac. 

“My concern is not artificial intelligence, but natural stupidity. I think that’s what drives most of the world’s worst features,” del Toro told NPR. “But I did want it to have the arrogance of Victor be similar in some ways to the tech bros.”

He said Frankenstein making his monster, played by Euphoria actor Jacob Elordi, was an action made “without considering the consequences” and future. He questions where AI is going in the same sense. 

“Ones and zeros don’t get the alchemy that you get with emotion and experience,” he said. “You get the information, but you don’t get the alchemy of emotion, spirituality and feeling.” 

Del Toro’s recent comment’s aren’t new, as the “Shape of Water” director previously stated his disinterest in the technology multiple times in the past. 

In 2023, he called AI an “insult to life itself,” and in 2024 he asked “the value of art is not how much it costs and how little effort it requires, it’s how much would you risk to be in its presence?” while at the British Film Institute. 

Del Toro’s latest movie, a $120 million epic for Netflix, launched in theaters nationwide Oct. 17, 2025 for a 3-week theatrical release and will release globally Nov. 7 on Netflix. It also features Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Ralph Ineson and others.