A film industry dominated by AI is a dystopian prospect: stories and dialogue generated by large language models, populated by reincarnated screen icons and uncanny humanoids . That is in the future, but the real-world impact of AI is already directly affecting jobs behind the scenes, as Hollywood’s biggest film-makers begin to adopt the technology. James Cameron – long an advocate for emerging technologies in film-making – is on the board of a gen AI firm , citing his interest in how AI will intersect with CGI; Steven Soderbergh used Meta-powered tech to create animations for his recent documentary about John Lennon ; even Christopher Nolan, while dismissing the idea that AI will replace humans as “nonsense”, conceded that it will create some useful “imaging tools”.

Meticulous … Saul Bass’ storyboard for the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho Photograph: TCD/Prod.DB/Alamy

The current canary in the coalmine however is the storyboard artist, whose work gen AI appears to have directly in its sights.…