\n\tJorge Guti\u00e9rrez thought he was being noble.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe director of \u201cThe Book of Life\u201d had watched generative AI<\/a> quietly move into every animation studio in town,\u00a0and he had a bad feeling about it.\u00a0\u201cThere aren\u2019t enough artists overseeing this stuff,\u201d he\u00a0thought.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tSo\u00a0when Amazon MGM Studios offered\u00a0Guti\u00e9rrez\u00a0the lead on \u201cPunky Duck,\u201d one of three series under its new GenAI Creators\u2019 Fundhe took the job, seeing it as part of a mission. \u201cI thought, I\u2019m going to make sure artists are guaranteed a seat at the table,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m going to make sure this is driven by artists.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWhat followed was one of the fastest public implosions in recent memory.\u00a0When it\u00a0was announced that Guti\u00e9rrez was taking\u00a0the \u201cPunky Duck\u201d job, his peers\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0see him as a hero\u00a0working for the cause, but as a defector.\u00a0Immediately, the death threats started against him and his wife, as did the publishing of his home address.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhat I quickly learned\u00a0is\u00a0this is a black-and-white issue,\u201d Guti\u00e9rrez says. \u201cYou\u2019re pro or you\u2019re anti\u00a0\u2014\u00a0there\u2019s no in between right now.\u201d\u00a0He adds, \u201cThe road to hell is paved with good intentions.\u00a0My intentions\u00a0were good, but I was taking my family to hell by doing this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tSo\u00a0Guti\u00e9rrez\u00a0backed\u00a0out of the project<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cIt was a Wednesday announcement,\u201d he\u00a0recalls\u00a0of\u00a0his hiring.\u00a0\u201cThursday, I said, \u2018I\u2019m listening to everybody.\u2019\u00a0On Friday\u00a0morning, I pulled the plug.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAmazon had no hard feelings when he walked away. \u201cThey said, \u2018You do whatever is best for your family,’\u201d he says. \u201cI think I\u2019m the first creator to kill their own show a day and a half after announcing it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tGuti\u00e9rrez\u2019s\u00a0ordeal was extreme, but the divide it exposed runs through every animation studio.\u00a0Travis Knight, the Laika CEO whose stop-motion films are built by hand, views\u00a0the\u00a0animation boom\u00a0as a chance to save corners of the medium he fears are fading. \u201cStop motion is a celebration of artistry over algorithms,\u201d Knight says. \u201cAI is the furthest thing from\u00a0human, so I get why people are nervous. I\u2019m nervous about it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n