While critics like Guillermo del Toro and James Cameron argue AI-generated films lack soul, many independent creators see the tools differently. At Google’s Flow Sessions showcase in New York, filmmakers demonstrated that AI-assisted work can still feel intentional, thoughtful, and personal — far from the “lowest common denominator” content often criticized online.

Filmmaker Keenan MacWilliam, for example, used AI to animate her own scanned images of plants and sea life in her short “Mimesis.” She avoided replacing collaborators and relied on her own dataset to preserve her artistic identity. For these creators, AI isn’t about handing over control — it’s about unlocking visuals and concepts that would be impossible or unaffordable using traditional methods alone.