Indie filmmaking can cease the moment of AI slop

Originally shared on September 11, 2025.

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Last night a short film I starred in made its premiere at a film festival. During the Q&A afterwards, one of the filmmakers was asked about why he chose to make a film about AI — it was a dark comedy. His initial response was something to the effect of “well, AI is bad.” I’m probably not quoting verbatim. But y’all, the whole audience erupted in laughter, applause, and cheers. An audience made up of indie filmmakers and those who support them. It got me thinking…

I was doing a lot of indie filmmaking in the early 2000s, and it was a an amazing time for both indie film and indie music. And the wild thing was that what we were doing in the indie scene was changing things in the overall industry. So much heart and soul was being poured into indie film and music at the time. And even A-list actors started taking roles in indie films because it was where the good roles were.

This moment last night where we all cheered in a movie theatre and laughed at something as simple as "AI is bad" made me realize we are in that moment again. Hollywood wants to make AI movies and pump AI into their movies. I say, let them. People were exhausted with the music industry output in the early 2000s and rushed to MySpace to eat up what indie musicians were putting it out. It was a mixture of alternative rock and much of it had a 60s flare. It was excellent. Go listen to Amy Winehouse if you want a taste of what it sounded like. And that's the thing, eventually the music industry started embracing these sounds and artists. Adele also grew out of this time. I don't remember if she was ever an indie musician, but I do remember listening to her music months before she blew up and suddenly everyone knew who she was.

The point?

Indie filmmakers you have this amazing moment before you. Go out and roll hard with all of your heart into your filmmaking. Your passion and heart will literally change the industry, and audiences will flock to you before that change even comes. Audiences will get tired of AI (if they aren't already) like they've gotten tired of Marvel. Indie filmmakers aren't gonna make the next Marvel Avengers event movie, but as always, indie filmmakers are gonna make some of the most amazing, heartfelt, fun, and unique movie experiences. So own it. When you go to pick your next project, pick one that you're super passionate about. Because it's that passion that is gonna lead the way.

Dogs Chasing Cars, the AI race

In 2011, I started writing a novella called Dogs Chasing Cars. It was set not far in the future, and it revolved around corporations racing to be the first to market to sell an android with the most advanced AI in the world. The corporations were so powerful, they were untouchable. They even had security squads, small military teams, that they would deploy to steal from or disrupt their competitors in some way.

Each had their own version of an android with advanced AI that was at varying stages of development. None of them were satisfied. A young man, a college dropout and genius, was slowly building one on his own. His was light years ahead of theirs and wind got out that he had accomplished what none of them could, so they all descended on him to steal his life’s work. In a late night attack on his home, he manages to barely escape and dump his android on a neighbor’s doorstep in the rain with a note.

Soon after the neighbor, his fiancée, and friend are on the run with the android — with the corporations hot on their tails.

I’ve been thinking about this story a lot lately because there are a lot of parallels between the world I was building in it and what we’re seeing now with the corporations today, the AI race, and how much power and influence they wield while they all race to be at the top of the AI slop pile. In a way, I’m glad I didn’t finish it back in 2011, because I have so much more to think about. But it is sad and wild in a way that some of the ideas I had, which I thought of as pure fiction, are not far from reality today.

I’m also glad I called it Dogs Chasing Cars because it’s so on the nose for how the AI race is unfolding today. At the time, I remember thinking of it as a descriptor of how the corporations were building AI. They were merely dogs chasing cars — wildly optimistic and without a care of who may get hurt or what they’ll do if they actually catch a car. They were just dogs chasing cars with their tongues wagging in the wind.

“Family is more important.”

When I was a young adult, my dad kept having heart attacks and was constantly in and out of the hospital. My boss never worried or complained when I informed him I had to bail on work, he would just stop me, and say, "Family is more important."

Be that boss. Be the boss who puts families first.

Too many bosses today take the complete opposite approach and put AI over people and their families. If your whole thing as a CEO is screwing over your staff and their families, so you can chase the AI pipe dream, maybe you need to recalibrate yourself.

Family is more important.

— George “The Wiz” Jones.

George “The Wiz” Jones. Miss you, man.

The em dash, AI, and Emily Dickinson

Someone: The em dash is a dead giveaway for AI written content.

*Emily Dickinson rises from the grave and enters the chat.*

Dickinson: I dwell in Possibility —