Seth Rogen Says Screenwriters Who Use AI Should 'Go Do Something Else' for a Living
Seth Rogen Says Screenwriters Who Use AI Should 'Go Do Something Else' for a Living
Jack SmartTue, May 19, 2026 at 3:06 AM UTC
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Seth Rogen on May 9
Credit: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty
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Seth Rogen, Lauren Miller Rogen and writer Sarah Leavitt, who collaborated on the new animated movie Tangles, weighed in on the use of artificial intelligence in a new interview
Seth's advice to writers using the technology was simple: “Go do something else”
“If your instinct is to use AI and not go through that process, you shouldn't be a writer,” he added
Seth Rogen is making his thoughts on artificial intelligence clear.
“I don't understand what it's supposed to do,” the actor-filmmaker, 44, said with a laugh while speaking to Brut America at the Cannes Film Festival in a video shared on May 14. “Every time I see a video on Instagram that's like 'Hollywood is cooked,' what follows is like the most stupid dog s--- I've ever seen in my life.”
A screenwriter using the technology to assist in the process is “not writing,” Seth said. “If your instinct is to use AI and not go through that process, you shouldn't be a writer. 'Cause then you're not writing.”
Seth Rogen at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14
Credit: Thibaud MORITZ / AFP via Getty
He addressed such writers in no uncertain terms, adding, “Go do something else.”
Seth was joined in the interview by his wife, Lauren Miller Rogen, and writer Sarah Leavitt. The latter's 2010 memoir, Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer's, My Mother and Me, inspired the new animated movie Tangles, which countsThe StudioEmmy winner and his wife among its producers.
As the writer of several hit screenplays, Seth said he also objects to a fundamental promise of AI.
“I think the idea of a tool that makes me write less is not appealing to me,” the Good Fortune actor explained. “I like writing.”
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The cast and crew of 'Tangles' at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14
Credit: Kristy Sparow/Getty
Leavitt echoed Seth, saying that in her day job as a creative writing professor, “We like to say to our students, ‘One of the things AI can't do is go through the creative process.' You're not just creating a product that's done, you're going through the process of figuring it out.”
Referencing the Tangles adaptation, she added with a laugh, “which we did for 10 years!”
“It's only what's fed into it,” Lauren, 44, said of the technology. “And I don't know how you could ever feed in what we went through.”
Seth and Lauren, who have been married since 2011, have been vocal about their personal experiences with Alzheimer's disease. It was caring for Lauren's late mother, Adele, who was diagnosed with genetic early-onset Alzheimer's at age 55, that inspired the duo to create the 2025 documentaryTaking Care. They also founded the nonprofit Hilarity for Charity in 2012 for Alzheimer's awareness, holding events with comedians and musicians to raise money to fight the disease.
Tangles is “hand-drawn animation,” noted Seth — a technology as far from AI as possible. “Every frame has a human touch to it, which is great.”
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The Leah Nelson-directed Tangles includes in its voice cast Seth, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Pamela Adlon, Beanie Feldstein, Sarah Silverman, Abbi Jacobson, Samira Wiley, Wanda Sykes, Adam Shapiro and Bowen Yang. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
