When George Lucas told an audience that AI makes filmmaking “easier” and “there’s nothing you can do” about its arrival, it landed the way most AI-in-film news now does, on a creative community split down the middle. Kevin Chang thinks the split itself is the problem.

“The creative world seems split into two sides right now. Some people are excited about AI, while others are pushing back against it. But maybe we’re asking the wrong question,” he writes. “As AI becomes part of our everyday creative process, what really matters isn’t whether you use AI or avoid it. The real question is: What story do you want to tell?”

For Chang, the tool choice was never the thing that separated good storytellers from bad ones. “You can choose to create everything by hand, or you can explore AI as another tool. Neither choice makes you a better storyteller. What makes the difference is your imagination, your perspective, and your ability to connect with people.”

The industry data increasingly agrees with him. Netflix’s Ted Sarandos confirmed generative AI has now touched roughly 300 titles, while insisting “movies are being made by people who make movies.” The tools are already everywhere. The authorship hasn’t moved.

None of this makes Chang a cheerleader. “I know AI still raises a lot of legitimate concerns,” he writes. “Copyright, creators’ rights, ethics, and governance all deserve serious attention, and it will take time to build better standards around them.” Those standards are slowly arriving: the EU AI Act’s transparency rules took effect this month, and SAG-AFTRA’s digital replica protections are now written into contracts.

But caution, for him, doesn’t mean dismissal: “Instead of dismissing AI outright, I’d rather watch how it reshapes the film industry. Who knows? Maybe one day we’ll realize that some incredible films only came to life because AI made them possible.”

His closing argument is the one worth pinning above the edit bay: “Technology will keep changing. New tools will come and go. But great stories have always been about people, their emotions, struggles, dreams, and hopes. That’s something no technology can replace. In the end, audiences don’t remember what software you used. They remember how your story made them feel.”

Whether you go all in on AI or stay away from it entirely, Chang’s advice is the same: “Never lose sight of what matters most. Imagination and storytelling have always been at the heart of great creative work, and they always will be.”

Adapted from a LinkedIn post by Kevin Chang, who works across AI filmmaking, industry research, and film criticism. Republished and expanded here with his permission.