At a time when capitalist forces are driving much of the advancement in artificial intelligence, Alex Proyas sees the use of AI in film-making as a source of artistic liberation. While many in the film sector see the emergence of artificial intelligence as a threat to their careers, livelihoods and even likenesses, the Australian film-maker behind The Crow, Dark City and I, Robot, believes the technology will make it much easier and cheaper to get projects off the ground. "The model for film-makers, who are the only people I really care about at the end of the day, is broken … and it's not AI that's causing that," Proyas tells the Guardian. He says residuals that film-makers used to rely on between projects are drying up in the streaming era, and the budgets for projects becoming smaller. "We need to rebuild it from the ground up. I believe AI can help us do that, because as it lowers the cost threshold to produce stuff, and as every month goes by, it's lowering it and lowering it, we can do more for less, and we can hopefully retain more ownership of those projects," he says.

Elon Musk officially unveiled more futuristic Tesla devices last week, but it seems not everyone is thrilled. Australian-Egyptian filmmaker Alex Proyas has accused the billionaire tech boss of poaching his ideas from his 2004 film'I, Robot'. On X (Twitter), Proyas posted photos of futuristic tech from'I, Robot' next to three remarkably-similar Tesla products – Optimus, Robovan and Robotaxi. Proyas also included the message: 'Hey Elon, Can I have my designs back please?' Robovan and Robotaxi were unveiled on Thursday at a Tesla event dubbed'We Robot' – a blatant reference to the film. Alex Proyas posted photos from his 2004 film'I, Robot' (left) next to Tesla's remarkably similar designs (right) Tesla's Optimus has a striking resemblance to Sonny, the fictional robot protagonist from the movie, starring Will Smith (pictured) Set in Chicago in 2035, 'I, Robot' depicts intelligent robots filling public service positions in a dystopian world.

Alex Proyas never got a high school diploma – a fact he blames on Isaac Asimov. It was Asimov's short story "Nightfall" that derailed Proyas' academic career. "It's a wonderful vision of how the world can suddenly descend into anarchy," says Proyas, 41, describing the chaos that ensues in "Nightfall" when all six of a planet's suns set for the first time in 2,049 years. "I tried to convince my English teachers to assign us some science fiction, but they wouldn't. It opened a rift between my creative desires and what the system wanted me to explore."