Summary
- Tom Holland has now added his voice to that discussion, and his position is clear: creativity belongs to humans, and AI cannot take it away.
- “Creativity is safe from AI because creativity has to do with the human experience.
- For now, Holland’s view on AI is as clear as it is confident.
As artificial intelligence continues to reshape industries across the world, the debate about its impact on art and creativity has become one of the defining conversations of our time. Tom Holland has now added his voice to that discussion, and his position is clear: creativity belongs to humans, and AI cannot take it away.
Speaking on Spain’s El Hormiguero talk show alongside Zendaya, Holland was direct and confident in his thinking. “Creativity is safe from AI because creativity has to do with the human experience. It’s about emotions, it’s about understanding one another,” he said. He went further, arguing that the technology’s fundamental limitations make genuine artistic expression beyond its reach. “AI can sift through data, but it can’t understand people’s emotions. It doesn’t understand the difference between being happy and being sad. The way artists paint, it’s not about what they’re copying, it’s about expressing themselves. So I feel protected.”
His comments arrive at a time when the entertainment industry is deeply divided on the question of AI. Just days before Holland spoke, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro issued a far more alarming warning at a BFI event, saying the industry is approaching a crisis point. “We are on the verge of image illiteracy. We are on the verge of cinema illiteracy,” del Toro said, reflecting a concern shared by many in the creative community that the proliferation of AI-generated content is quietly eroding the conditions that allow genuine art to thrive.
Others in Hollywood have taken a very different view. Reese Witherspoon and Sandra Bullock have both spoken in favour of engaging with and implementing AI in everyday life, while Martin Scorsese has partnered with an AI company to use its technology for storyboarding. The conversation is far from settled, and the range of positions held by respected figures in the industry reflects just how genuinely complex the question has become.
For Holland, however, the answer comes back to something simple and irreducible. The emotional truth that drives creative work, whether in acting, painting, music, or any other art form, is rooted in lived human experience. It cannot be data-processed or algorithmically generated. It has to be felt, and that, he believes, is what keeps creativity beyond the reach of any machine.
The appearance on El Hormiguero comes during one of the most demanding and exciting stretches of Holland’s career. He stars as Telemachus in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, due in cinemas on July 24, before returning to the Marvel universe just a week later in Spider-Man: Brand New Day on July 31. Zendaya appears alongside him in both films, making their joint press tour this summer one of the most watched in recent Hollywood memory.
For now, Holland’s view on AI is as clear as it is confident. Creativity, he believes, is not under threat. And coming from someone whose work depends entirely on human emotional truth, that confidence feels well-placed.
