AI is revolutionizing the film industry

“It won’t be long,” says Yonatan Dor, “before screen actors are a thing of the past.” Dor is the creative force behind the astonishing Dor Brothers videos, in which AI versions of world leaders appear as criminals in action-packed short films set to music and broadcast online.

In a recent Dor Brothers’ outing – Waidmanns Heil – Kamala Harris, Elon Musk, Hillary Clinton and others dressed as huntsmen pursue an unstoppable rodent with Donald Trump’s distinctive hair through an Alpine fairytale. They wreak destruction as they try to squash the Trump-rat, which seems to be the film’s point. In recent weeks the studio’s dystopian comic creations have lit up the internet. Joe Rogan has said its work is “incredible” and Lex Fridman, in conversation with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, said the films push the boundaries of what’s socially acceptable, existing at the very “edge of the Overton Window.”

Dor’s films push the boundaries of what’s socially acceptable, existing at the ‘edge of the Overton Window’

Who the other Dor brother or brothers might be, or even if he or they exist, remains a mystery. Yonatan does the publicity. He acknowledges that he is working at the frontier of a new form of media – and that manipulating other people’s likenesses is potentially dangerous – but he claims to be mindful of the responsibility to use the technology for good. He says his videos showcase how it is possible “in a very obviously satirical way, but also in a very realistic and convincing way,” for society to become accustomed to AI videos. This is better, he suggests, than “letting somebody else maliciously make a president appear to say something that causes a nuclear war.”

He points out that AI tools are being developed with such exponential rapidity – “wizardry” – that within five years the tech will be able easily to train on existing footage of actors and then adapt it to any role. Directing AI talent, he believes, will be as simple as typing the prompt: “I want you to be this actor, but in this role, with this emotion, with this vibe, with this mindset.” He says: “It will then act extremely well with that personality, but with its own twist on that actor’s mindset and emotion.”

The area which AI filmmaking will inevitably dominate is pornography. Already, society has had a foretaste of what is coming. The obscene artificial images of Taylor Swift that appeared online in 2024 caused a global outcry. Dor acknowledges that AI and porn are natural bedfellows – “it wouldn’t surprise me that porn is something that pushes the technology forward” – but he’s more concerned by the manner in which the technology will soon be able to satiate all human desires, not just the erotic. “It’s the scariest aspect because we’re talking about satisfying a person’s need entirely, which is beyond porn and romance. It’s also entertainment… That’s the biggest fear. We know AI is going to a place where it will perfectly entertain and indulge us in every need we have. How do we avoid a future where we just sit and plug into that thing and stay inside of it 24/7?” Dor likens this horrifying image to a “brain-heroin machine.”

Dor does have artistic integrity as well as a conscience. He switches off the YouTube function that would enable him to monetize his videos, each of which is watched by tens of millions of people; that decision, which he estimates costs him half a million euros annually, is largely artistic: “We want to bring back that mentality of making something cool, making something with spirit, making something with a personality – and not always chasing money.”

More pragmatically, he adds that he’s less likely to be sued for creating satirical content if he’s not profiting from it. Instead, he makes an income by using AI tech to create advertising for brands or to make pop videos for the likes of Snoop Dogg.

‘Maybe the tsunami of digitalism will bring us back to being more human again’

Dor is a skeptic when it comes to politics. He says he actively disengages from political conversations on the basis that he does not find them interesting. Rather, he says, he is fascinated by the manner in which humans increasingly believe we have separated ourselves from the less civilized aspects of our nature. This is the theme he is primarily exploring in his films. “People used to believe in mystical owls that whispered divine words into our ears, but we completely depressed it and became very clinical and hygienic with our thoughts. It’s nice to remind people we’re still very primal and instinctive and tribal,” he says.

Dor is clearly having fun with his AI creations – but like the rest of us he sounds both excited and frightened by the sudden and growing enormity of artificial intelligence. He speaks enthusiastically about the effect it will have on the film industry by enabling artists to take risks and circumvent executives who are concerned only with safeguarding a return on their investment: “I think there’s a coming golden age of cinema, because so many individual creators with fantastic ideas will be empowered and will be able to make high quality cinema again without executives saying what they can and can’t do.”

But he adds that AI is ultimately just a tool, and using it well to make stories come to life will always require talent. “The same directors who were good before will remain good, with it or without it,” he says. And “maybe the tsunami of digitalism will bring us back to being more human again,” he says. “We’re humans and we connect to humans and we connect to human art. So maybe you’ll have incredible AI actors – but already we have incredible AI chess players and still we prefer watching Magnus Carlsen playing, even though we know AI will beat him a thousand out of a thousand times.”

As for the future of AI, Dor says: “I think about it as a different species that is a million times more intelligent… so one of the most important things we should look out for is the people developing it. We don’t want a situation where people are racing to the top and, by doing so, destroying everything behind them.” He believes the need for an international United Nations-style regulatory body for artificial intelligence is even more pressing than it is for nuclear weapons. “We know nuclear is dangerous, and we know that if somebody pulls a trigger we’re doomed – but we know that we have the control of pulling the trigger. With AI, we don’t really know that, and that makes it an even bigger threat,” he says.

Dor tells me that he is a spiritual person: “I believe there’s something beyond the human. I think the humility that comes from that thought process is really important.” He adds: “If you don’t have a God, maybe you start thinking you are one – and that’s where the problems arise.”

This article was originally published in The Spectator’s September 15, 2025 World edition.