“If I could snap my fingers and make generative AI disappear forever, I probably would.”
That line from 20-year-old director Kane Parsons dropped like a bomb online this week. The quote, pulled from his recent interview with The Australian, has exploded across X, Reddit, YouTube, and entertainment sites as the filmmaker behind A24’s blockbuster Backrooms takes a hard stance against generative AI in creative work.
Parsons, known online as Kane Pixels, didn’t hold back.
“Creatively, I get no enjoyment from using those tools. It defeats the purpose entirely for me,”
He told the newspaper while promoting the film, which hit theaters May 29, 2026, and quickly became A24’s highest-grossing movie ever.
The young director argues that generative AI strips away the human creativity, effort, and personal satisfaction that make filmmaking worthwhile. He sees the flood of AI-generated content as
“a symptom of a broader cultural and economic rot”
Rather than real innovation.
“Right now it’s difficult to discuss objectively because there’s so much at stake and so many genuinely harmful consequences already happening,”
Parsons added.
At the same time, he’s not completely against the technology. Parsons says he’s open to using AI for tedious, repetitive visual-effects tasks but draws a firm line against letting it handle core creative decisions.
“I’m interested in using that iconography in art not using AI to make the art itself, but examining what it represents,”
He explained.
Parsons’ rise gives his words extra weight. The Northern California native started the Backrooms found-footage series at age 16 on YouTube, teaching himself Blender and After Effects on a basic laptop. What began as a short horror video inspired by internet creepypasta ballooned into a viral sensation with millions of views. A24 came calling when he was 17, making him the studio’s youngest feature director. He co-wrote the script with Will Soodik and pushed hard for practical sets and hands-on effects in the final film, which stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve.
The remarks have lit up both sides of the AI debate. Supporters praise Parsons for defending artistic authenticity and protecting jobs in an industry already facing pressure. Many creators on Reddit and X echoed his concerns about originality and “AI slop” flooding public spaces.
On the other side, AI advocates argue the tools can help smaller filmmakers and speed up grunt work, calling Parsons’ position shortsighted or Luddite-like. The conversation reflects deeper Hollywood tensions, with figures like Martin Scorsese recently embracing certain AI uses while others push back.
As artificial intelligence grows more powerful, Hollywood and America’s creative industries now face a big question: Will audiences keep valuing human-made storytelling over machine-generated content? Parsons’ surprise hit suggests many still do at least for now.
