Seth Rogen is speaking out against the growing wave of AI-generated content, saying that writers who make use of the technology shouldn’t be writers at all. The actor and filmmaker shared his thoughts while talking about his animated film, “Tangles,” highlighting how it was created with “human touch” and zero artificial intelligence.
Talking to Brut America at the Cannes Film Festival, filmmaker Seth Rogen didn’t mince words when speaking about AI. He said he doesn’t really understand what AI is supposed to be about, adding that he sees plenty of videos on Instagram saying “Hollywood is cooked” due to the rise of computer-generated content. “What follows is the most stupid dog sh-t I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said, referring to AI videos.
Rogen’s comments came amid the controversies of using AI in Hollywood, opening discussions about job security, intellectual property, and artistic authenticity, with some major film studios experimenting with AI for cost-cutting and post-production.
In May, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization that oversees the Oscars, banned purely AI-generated acting and AI-authored writing from winning awards in order to protect artistic integrity, as reported by the BBC.
The Actor Thinks Writers Who Use AI Shouldn’t Be Writers
Rogen continued with his AI takedown, tearing specifically into writers who rely on AI. “If you’re instinct is to use AI and not go through that process, you shouldn’t be a writer,” Rogen said, adding that using AI isn’t writing. For the filmmaker, writing is a process, and the idea of using the technology fails to resonate with him.
The actor has written plenty for films and television, and he enjoys the process. “The idea of a toll that makes me write less is not appealing to me, because I like writing,” he explained. Sarah Leavitt, the author of the graphic novel on which Rogen’s movie is based, also shared her opinion. As a creative writing professor, Leavitt said she tells her students, “One of the things AI can’t do is go through the creative process.”
This isn’t the first time Rogen spoke out against AI. In 2023, the actor spoke out against the technology amid the Writers Guild of America strike. “I think the prospect of artificial intelligence writing things is horrifying, and the fact that they seem to be digging in on [it] is more horrifying,” Rogen stated.
One of the key issues of the 2023 strike was writers seeking protection to ensure that generative AI tools would not be used to write materials. “You’d have to shove a lot of weed in that thing [for it to write good TV],” Rogen noted, referring to AI tools.
The Filmmaker Boasts No AI Was Used In ‘Tangles’
Rogen talked about his animated film “Tangles,” which tells the story of Sarah, an activist who leaves her life in San Francisco to return to her hometown and care for her mother, who has Alzheimer’s. Rogen and his wife, Lauren Miller Rogen, serve as producers, and the movie has an ensemble cast, including Bryan Cranston, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Pamela Adlon, Sarah Silverman, Samira Wiley, Wanda Sykes, and Bowen Yang, among others.
According to Rogen, no AI was used in the film. “It’s hand-drawn animation. Every frame has a human touch to it,” he shared. Lauren added, “When the line was drawn by a hand, that hand was moved through someone who felt feelings, instead of just, like, a program.”
Seth Rogen Has Numerous Writing Credits
While many know Rogen best for his acting, he has been writing since his teen years. In the early 2000s, he was a writer and actor for Judd Apatow’s TV show “Undeclared,” followed by writing for the final season of Sacha Baron Cohen’s sketch series, “Da Ali G Show.”
In 2007, his film “Superbad” was released, a script that he started developing with Evan Goldberg while he was still a teenager. In the years that followed, Rogen co-wrote “Drillbit Taylor,” “Pineapple Express,” “The Green Hornet,” and “The Watch,” “Sausage Party,” “The Interview,” plus an episode of “The Simpsons.”
In 2025, Rogen won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for his Apple TV+ series, “The Studio.”
