Director Steven Soderbergh is set to release John Lennon: The Last Interview, an upcoming documentary that will incorporate 10 per cent AI-generated scenes. Soderbergh believes the late Beatle would have approved, but some see this as a controversial step.
The project faces challenges in filling gaps where visuals are needed to illustrate more abstract concepts from Lennon's final interview. Meta offered its AI tools for free, which could be seen as a 'stress test' of the technology’s limits on a real-world production.
The Academy Awards have updated their rules to exclude AI from acting and writing awards, making this documentary a potential gauge of public acceptance. Soderbergh argues that his use is not about fooling viewers but using it openly like VFX or CGI—his intention being to explore the technology's possibilities rather than replace human work.
Money issues loom over the project, with AI being used as a cost-saving measure. Symbolic imagery and even cavemen dressed in '60s outfits will be featured alongside Lennon's audio. Soderbergh maintains that John himself would have embraced new technology, suggesting he’d have been intrigued by what it could do.
But would the real Lennon really have wanted to ‘give prompt a chance’? The answer may lie in how audiences and critics react to this blend of AI-generated visuals with human creativity.







