彭博专栏作家凯瑟琳·索贝克上周在东京参加了一场AI电影节，原本预期会看到粗制滥造的作品，却意外地被银幕上流露出的人性所打动。她最喜欢的短片以一个拿著摄影机的孩子视角，记录与祖父母共度的美好夏天；获奖作品讲述一位巴黎面部畸形男子渴望寻找舞伴的故事；最受观众欢迎的《邮差》则想像一个分拣垃圾的机器人怀念曾经递送手写信件时与人类建立连结的未来世界。这三部影片都让她产生了真实的情感共鸣，而这在AI生成内容普遍被视为缺乏灵魂的当下，本身就是一个具有挑战性的观点。（关键数字：5, 11）
文章指出，观众对AI艺术的偏见往往受到「知情效应」的影响。一位匿名艺术家在社群媒体上发布了一张图片，声称是AI模仿莫内的作品，评论者纷纷批评其缺乏深度与精致度，但该图片最终被揭露为莫内的真迹。这一事件印证了研究结论：人们在不知道AI参与的情况下往往给予更高评价，得知后则会降低评分。与此同时，作者也坦承，她在飞机上看的几部好莱坞大片——由大量人力和巨额预算打造——同样毫无灵魂可言，多是敷衍的续集，剧本更像企业委员会的产物，而非人类经验的真实表达。
在东京遇到的电影创作者们并非鲁莽的AI加速主义者，而是务实的艺术家。他们承认AI降低了成本、提高了效率，但并未改变电影制作的本质。来自动画产业的创作者认为AI是管理工作量的实用工具，而人类的创造力源自累积的生命经验，机器无法取代。文章最后强调，尽管AI正在改变故事的制作方式，但创意产业工会在决定技术如何被使用方面至关重要，且该技术的建构方式——未经许可大量撷取创作者作品——仍需透过合理的补偿机制来解决。最终，观众会自行判断哪些故事值得他们的时间与金钱，而AI无法取代驱使人类讲述故事的那份初衷。
Bloomberg Opinion columnist Catherine Thorbecke attended an AI film festival in Tokyo hosted by Runway, a $5 billion US-based startup, and was struck by the emotional depth of the films on display. Her favorite was an 11-minute short capturing a child's summer with grandparents; the winner told the story of a disfigured man in Paris longing for a dance partner; and the crowd favorite, The Postman, depicted a robot yearning for the human connections it once had as a mail carrier. All three films provoked genuine emotion, challenging the prevailing assumption that AI-generated content is inherently soulless — a provocative stance given widespread anger over AI's impact on intellectual property and artists' livelihoods.
The article highlights a persistent bias against AI art shaped by awareness of its origins. A viral episode in which internet commentators criticized what they believed was an AI imitation of Monet — only for it to be revealed as an authentic painting by the Impressionist — illustrates research showing that people rate AI-involved work lower once they learn of its provenance. Thorbecke also questions the sanctity of traditional filmmaking, noting that several big-budget Hollywood films she watched on a flight felt equally devoid of soul, resembling corporate committee work rather than genuine creative expression. Winning over audiences, she argues, will require demonstrating that AI films involve far more labor and artistry than simply prompting a machine.
The filmmakers Thorbecke met in Tokyo were pragmatic artists who viewed AI as a cost-reducing and efficiency-boosting tool rather than a replacement for human creativity. They acknowledged the technology's limitations — such as the near-impossibility of replicating complex long takes — and emphasized that core filmmaking skills like character development and shot composition remain essential. The article concludes by stressing that while AI is transforming how stories are produced, creative industry unions must play a central role in governing its adoption, and the industry must find ways to compensate creators whose work was used to train generative models. Ultimately, machines cannot experience the ache of missing a grandparent or the loneliness of hiding behind a mask; AI can change how stories are made, but not what motivates us to tell them.