A losing battle: Demi Moore on Hollywood's fight against artificial intelligence
At the Cannes Film Festival 2026, actor Demi Moore said fighting artificial intelligence is a losing battle for Hollywood. She urged the industry to find ways to work with the technology.
Actor Demi Moore, at the Cannes Film Festival, said that Hollywood cannot afford to treat artificial intelligence (AI) as something it can simply defeat. Speaking at a press conference in France on the opening day of Cannes, Moore said AI is now part of the industry landscape and that the more useful approach would be to find ways to work with it while also protecting the film business.
Her remarks came as AI emerged as one of the main talking points on the opening day of the 79th Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday. While Cannes does not allow generative AI in competition, debate over the technology's place in filmmaking ran through the festival, alongside wider conversations about cinema, politics and artistic expression.
Moore on AI and the industry
Moore, 63, addressed reporters ahead of the festival opening and said resistance alone would not work. "Against-ness breeds against-ness. AI is here. So to fight it is to fight a battle that we will lose. So to find ways that we can work with it is a valuable path that we can take".
The actor also said the industry was probably not doing enough to protect itself. Asked if filmmakers and studios had taken adequate steps, she said she did not know, but her instinct was that they had "probably not" done enough.
Moore, known for films such as Ghost and Charlie's Angels 2, is attending Cannes this year as one of nine jurors who will help decide the Palme d'Or winner. She returned to the festival after The Substance, which premiered at Cannes in 2024, brought her first Oscar nomination.
Other voices in AI debate at Cannes
The discussion did not end with Moore. On the festival's opening day, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro also criticised the growing idea that art could be replaced by software. Del Toro was at Cannes to present a 4K restoration of Pan's Labyrinth. The film, set in 1940s Spain, is about a young girl and a fascist captain, which he said, was released 20 years ago.
Del Toro said the present moment had made the film feel newly relevant. "We are, unfortunately, in times that make this movie more pertinent than ever because they tell us everything is useless to resist, that art can be done with a f***ing app," he said.
Park Chan-wook on art and politics
South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, known for Oldboy, The Handmaiden and Decision to Leave, spoke at Cannes on the relationship between art and politics. Park, who is presiding over the nine-member jury, said he found it strange when art and politics were presented as being in conflict. In his view, a political statement does not make a work less artistic. He also said films without political messages should not be dismissed.
Park said even a powerful political message could become propaganda if it was not expressed artistically. "Art and politics are not concepts that are in conflict with each other; as long as they are artistically expressed, they are valuable," he said.
The Cannes Film Festival, which began on May 12, will conclude on May 23. It is also expected to see several Indian celebrities and film personalities in attendance.