\n<\/p>\n
\n\tJust because the cool kids are doing it, doesn\u2019t mean you need to as well. <\/p>\n
\n\tHuh? Ya know that social media trend that\u2019s going around where people are posting photos of themselves from 2016?<\/p>\n
\n\tEverything Everywhere All at Once <\/em>Oscar winning filmmaker and the producer of this year\u2019s Sundance Focus Feature documentary The A.I. Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist<\/em> exclaimed \u201cDon\u2019t do that!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThey\u2019re (tech companies) are using that to train their machines on you to show people age. Stop it!\u201d exclaimed Kwan at a Hollywood Reporter <\/em>A.I. panel yesterday moderating by Chris Gardner. <\/p>\n \n\tWe caught up with Kwan at Deadline\u2019s Studio today to ask him more about it. He warned that \u201ctech companies are running out of data on us.\u201d Hence, if you see these meme-like, social posting trends, don\u2019t partake. It\u2019s all means for tech companies to collect information on us who then sell that data. Per reports in October, the immigration law enforcement agency bought access to an all-in-one surveillance tool that provides updated location data from hundreds of millions of cell phones. Penlink is reportedly behind products known as Tangles and WebLoc. Both were created by an Israeli company called Cobwebs, which merged into Penlink in 2023. ICE has reportedly spent upwards of $5 million for access to the software per Forbes<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tKwan emphasized to Deadline \u201cthe need for alternative forms of communication,\u201d meaning independent data services which can operate outside the government. Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink recently was able to smash through Iran\u2019s web blackout. <\/p>\n Kwan\u2019s convo with Gardner largely focused on A.I. and how can responsibly harness it.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cFirst thing you need to know about an AI docu is that no one wants to do an AI doc, no one on my team wanted to do it. It was one of those things that falls in your lap; the longer you look at it, someone has to help bring clarity to the conversation. Right after Everything Everywhere <\/em>came out, I was looking at new technologies that were coming out; this was before Google Chat GPT.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe\u2019re coming up in a geopolitical corporate arms race of who is getting the biggest market share so that they can try to get AI dominance over the globe so that it helps their economy, their military, all these things,\u201d Kwan told Gardner. What goes wrong here is that these tech corps \u201care deploying this technology on a society that isn\u2019t ready for it.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe need global coordination,\u201d said Kwan in regards to AI. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cMy fear is that if the film industry, not just Hollywood, but YouTubers, influencers, if we\u2019re not careful, if we don\u2019t come together to set the terms of our industry, the tech industry is going to set the terms for us. They\u2019re slowly going to siphon up everything until they hold the keys for our industry,\u201d declared Kwan at the confab at Park City\u2019s Pendry Hotel. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIf we don\u2019t build up our collective leverage against the tech industry then basically what\u2019s going to happen is that they will divide and conquer,\u201d Kwan continued.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe need to become a coordinating hub between all the agencies, all the unions, all the studios, anyone who is concerned about this technology,\u201d he said, \u201ceven if we have different opinions, we need to find the areas of overlap which will give us more power.\u201d <\/p>\n What got Kwan going on 2016 was when Gardner asked him to regale about his Sundance breakout film then, Swiss Army Man,<\/em> with co-director, Daniel Scheinert. The pic won the Daniels the Dramatic Directing Award at the fest, and was acquired by A24. <\/p>\n \n\tQuipped Kwan, \u201cI\u2019m realy mad that we\u2019re not in the marketing this year \u2014 you don\u2019t want a farting corpse movie?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n