Grimes is set to make her film debut as futuristic aristocrat Zayinth Alda in the AI-generated movie Gods Don’t Give Gifts.
Gods Don’t Give Gifts is a sci-fi anthology movie made up of four short films, created by AI studio Fable and YouTuber Gossip Goblin (real name Zack London). It is being advertised as the first fully AI-generated movie to be getting a theatrical release and is set to launch in cinemas December 4.
Yesterday (November 5) it was confirmed that Grimes had leant her likeness and voice to the project. “With Gods Don’t Give Gifts, we’re hoping to reset expectations of what an animated film can look like,” said the film’s producer Edward Saatchi in a statement to People.
“We hope to make something that sets up a new aesthetic for animated films. With Grimes in the film, it gives a preview of something completely new for animation – performers giving vocal performances driving characters that look totally different to what you expect in a Pixar/Dreamworks style movie.”
According to a press release, Gods Don’t Give Gifts explores the disturbing consequences of humanity’s attempts to transcend the limitations of the physical body. Grimes plays a “disenfranchised” aristocrat on the fictional world of Niiro Cradle, “where bodies are disposable and consciousness has been commoditised.”
Grimes previously released AI music software that mimicked her voice and made more than 200 AI records available for content creators to use for free.
“When I see some of the new stuff coming with AI, all this stuff that is about to explode, when everyone has the same tools that can make professional quality stuff, then you get to see the actual talent really rise to the top,” she said shortly afterwards. “If there’s ever a moment to have a feeling of purpose, I think it would be now, because what we do in the things we create over the next few decades will probably shape all minds going forward for the rest of time.”
Grimes is also set to release AI-themed album ‘Psy Opera’ on January 22, 2027. She’s promised fans that it wasn’t made with any generative AI but will explore the effect of the technology
“I was thinking about how everyone is like, ‘We’re building gods’. I’m like, ‘Why do you automatically assume you’re so much lesser? You’re literally responsible for creating AI. You’re abdicating so much self-esteem and pride and responsibility and agency when you act like whatever AI is, no one has a hand in it’,” she explained in an interview.
“And I was getting emotional because we might really go extinct, for a number of reasons. Human life is very frail and time is very long. But I’d hope, if we had good relations with AI, they would take our DNA and make more of us when things get more hospitable.”
