Martin Scorsese’s promotion of AI company called a ‘betrayal’ by director’s union

Artificial intelligenceMartin Scorsese’s promotion of AI company called a ‘betrayal’ by director’s unionA letter from the Art Director’s Guild accused the acclaimed filmmaker of “turning his back” on the artists who helped him create some of his best work. Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Martin Scorsese on June 5 in New York City.Dominik Bindl / Getty Images for Tribeca FestivalShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJune 10, 2026, 12:51 PM EDTBy Doha Madani and Austin MullenOscar-winning director Martin Scorsese, usually hailed as a master filmmaker and scholar of cinema, is facing backlash for promoting a company that offers generative AI products. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The director of classics such as “Raging Bull” and “Goodfellas” spoke about embracing artificial intelligence as a movie making tool in a video posted last week by AI startup company Black Forest Labs. The video announced that Scorsese had joined the company as an advisor. In a statement to the New York Times last week, Scorsese told the outlet that he was interested in the technology’s role in storytelling and “seeing how that can push the bounds of creativity.” “Remember, cinema is a young medium, only around 125 years old, so we have to be open to how it can evolve,” he said. Representatives for Scorsese did not immediately respond to an NBC News request for comment. The New York Times article noted that he declined an interview, but made clear his support of AI was specific to storyboarding, the preproduction process of using illustrations to plan scenes in a movie. “For 70 years, I’ve been creating my own storyboards,” he said. “There’s always been this problem of how do you communicate what you see in your head to your cast and crew. There are some things you have to see and feel.”That embrace of AI was the subject of an open letter from the Art Directors Guild Local 800, an chapter of the IATSE union, publis...