George Washington biopic ignites uproar from viewers and critics over alleged AI use

If you thought the whole 'AI invading Hollywood' thing was winding down, think again. The latest film to land itself in the firing line is Young Washington, a patriotic war drama all about (you guessed it) young George Washington. It’s from Angel Studios and Wonder Project, it stars William Franklyn-Miller as the man himself, and it’s out in UK cinemas from July 3rd, so you’ll just have to imagine it playing over the roar of Union Jacks for now.

Why is Young Washington under fire?

Here’s the gist: a lot of people reckon the film’s battle scenes are packed with AI-generated imagery – and frankly, they’re not being subtle about it. Some critics and viewers claim the tech is so obvious it takes you right out of the period drama vibes, which is not really what you want from a film meant to make you care about 18th-century musket fights.

Critics aren’t mincing words

Let’s start with Robert Kojder over at Flickering Myth, who absolutely shreds the film for what he calls 'unmistakable, hideous generative AI' and 'AI-generated imagery in war sequences'. His main point? The obvious use of AI kills what little immersion the movie manages elsewhere.

Brian Orndorf (Blu-Ray) wasn’t quite as blunt, but let’s not pretend he was impressed. He wrote that the battle scenes are 'hindered by iffy CGI (which looks like AI at times) and limited scope'. As in, even if you can ignore the tech, it still doesn’t deliver much oomph for those supposed ‘historic’ conflicts.

Where did these AI accusations actually come from?

• The first people calling foul aren’t your average cinema-goers – they’re history nuts and eagle-eyed social media users. A self-described American Continental Army historian on X (that’s Twitter, if you’ve lost track), @KKriegeBlog, pinpointed the Fort Necessity battle scene clips posted to Facebook. His breakdown? The French soldiers’ faces look off, the lighting feels out of place, the movement’s odd, and the kit doesn’t match the period (his words: 'beardy fudd with a percussion cap' and a 'left-handed musket' that apparently can’t decide if it’s from 1050 or 1750).

He summed up the clips like this:

'I am pretty sure, from the way that the French are depicted in a couple of clips, the lighting, the movement, etc, that they are using AI.'

To be fair, once these battlefield oddities were spotted online, it didn’t take long for others to jump on the bandwagon.

It gets more awkward in the credits

The talk about AI isn’t just snark. After AMC’s Screen Unseen promo (where punters watch a mystery film before release and, well, sometimes regret it), a few viewers started posting screenshots of the rolling credits for Young Washington. One user, @NationofEagles, helpfully zooms in on a list of credits including one 'AI producer', four 'AI artists', and someone credited with 'AI Utility'. His comment says it all:

'I stuck around until the credits to 100% confirm and yes it does use AI generation.'

In short, the filmmakers appear to be owning it – or at least not hiding it very well.

Audience reaction – and the bigger industry noise

Some Instagram users proper laid into AMC’s Screen Unseen for 'tricking' people into watching what they’re calling an 'AI movie' set to flop. Others straight up say it's 'too bad it was made with AI,' while another goes so far as to shudder at a credit for 'ai artists' and declares 'no thank you'.

Honestly, this isn’t all that surprising given how touchy everyone in the industry — and outside it — has become about artificial intelligence muscling in on jobs that were, until five minutes ago, done by actual humans. The topic’s been rumbling on for months, hitting everything from writers to CGI artists, and the blowback clearly isn’t dying off.

Who else is under fire for AI?

It’s getting properly awkward for a few very big Hollywood names. Steven Soderbergh, who got some stick for using AI in films like The Christophers and his John Lennon: The Last Interview doc, admits AI helped him save money on visuals but says it’s not a magic fix for everything:

'I don’t think it’s the solution to everything, and I don’t think it’s the death of everything.'

Even Martin Scorsese copped it from the Art Directors Guild, who sent a real finger-wagging letter accusing him of turning his back on the artists who helped make his career. No shortage of drama, then – just not always the sort made for the screen.