George Miller has thoughts on AI filmmaking – they may surprise you
Karl Quinn
Oct 12, 2025 - The Age
George Miller has some advice for anyone concerned about the rise of AI and its impact on the creative industries, and filmmaking in particular.
“Be alert but not alarmed – and be excited,” he says.
At 80, the filmmaker behind Babe, Happy Feet and the Mad Max universe has seen plenty of technological innovation, in both medicine, where he began his career, and cinema. And he knows that big shifts often trigger big anxieties.
“I’ll never forget when I was a young medical student and Christiaan Barnard in South Africa did the first heart transplant,” he says. “I remember the debate, ‘We should not be doing this. This is playing God. This is against human nature’. And now there are probably three heart transplants going on [in his hometown of Sydney] today, and I know people who are walking around having active lives because of heart transplants. That happens at every turn, you know. And here we are again in this rapidly accelerating process.”
Miller has always embraced innovation. Without CGI, he couldn’t have made Babe, with its talking pig. Without motion-capture, he couldn’t have made Happy Feet, with its dancing penguins.
“Part of me has always been interested in tools, and I think that applies to just about everything we do,” he says. “And AI is the next tool – and as much as people are threatened by or uneasy about it, it’s here to stay.”
