Did The Electric State use AI to write its script?
No. The Electric State's screenplay is credited to Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the human writers behind Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. No credible reporting shows AI wrote the script. The rumor comes from the $320 million film's brutal reception — 14% on Rotten Tomatoes — and the fact that it's a movie about robots.
Why — the first-principles explanation
The rumor is a case study in how "feels AI-generated" becomes "was AI-generated" in about two clicks.
Start with the credit, which is a legal fact rather than a marketing claim. Markus and McFeely are longtime Russo brothers collaborators, and Writers Guild credits are determined by an arbitration process with rules about what counts as authorship. The Guild's 2023 agreement — the one that ended a 148-day strike — established that AI-generated material is not "literary material" and cannot receive writing credit. So on a WGA-covered production, "AI wrote the script" isn't a thing that can quietly happen and then appear in the credits. It would be a contract violation, not a stylistic choice.
So why does everyone think it? Three things stacked. First, the movie is about AI — sentient robots, a Simon Stålenhag illustrated novel about machine consciousness. The subject matter primes the accusation. Second, the reception was catastrophic: 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, 30/100 on Metacritic, against a reported $320 million budget, making it one of the most expensive films ever made. Critics reached for words like "soulless" and "slop" — and in 2025, "soulless" and "AI" had become near-synonyms in film criticism. Third, the Russo brothers have publicly talked up AI's future in filmmaking, so people connected an unrelated dot.
Here's the part worth being precise about. "Did it use AI?" and "Did AI write it?" are different questions with different answers. Big-budget VFX pipelines have used machine learning for years — rotoscoping, denoising, motion tracking, face replacement, crowd simulation. Wikipedia files the film under a generative-AI category, though it doesn't document what specific use that refers to. None of that is screenwriting. A tool that cleans up a matte line has nothing to do with who wrote the dialogue, and conflating the two is how the rumor keeps regenerating.
The honest conclusion: the script was written by two well-paid human screenwriters, and the film was bad anyway. That's the uncomfortable part. "AI wrote it" is a more comforting explanation than "expensive humans made a $320 million movie that didn't work," which is why the rumor sticks.
An example that makes it click
Imagine a restaurant serves you a genuinely terrible steak. It's grey, it's rubbery, it tastes like nothing. You say: "a machine cooked this." It's the obvious insult — because bad food feels automated, like nobody was in the room caring about it.
But then you go back to the kitchen and there's a chef. A famous one, with a résumé full of dishes you loved. He cooked it himself, with his hands, for a very large fee. The steak is still terrible.
That's The Electric State. "A robot made this" is what we now say instead of "this has no soul." It's a review, not a finding. The people who wrote it have names, and one of them wrote Endgame.
Key facts
- The Electric State's screenplay is credited to Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, frequent Russo brothers collaborators — not to AI.
- Reported budget was $320 million, making it one of the most expensive films ever produced.
- It premiered February 24, 2025 and was released on Netflix March 14, 2025.
- Critical reception was severely negative: 14% on Rotten Tomatoes (3.7/10 average) and 30/100 on Metacritic ('generally unfavorable').
- The Writers Guild of America's 2023 Minimum Basic Agreement, which ended a 148-day strike, established that AI-generated material is not 'literary material' and cannot receive writing credit on covered productions.
- Wikipedia lists the film in a 'Works created using generative AI' category, but does not document which specific production element that refers to — and no such use is attributed to the screenplay.
▶ The 60-second explainer (script)
Did The Electric State use AI to write its script? No. The screenplay is credited to Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely — the humans who wrote Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. And that credit isn't a marketing claim, it's a legal fact. Writers Guild credits go through an arbitration process, and the Guild's 2023 contract — the one that ended a 148-day strike — established that AI-generated material is not literary material and cannot receive writing credit. So 'AI secretly wrote this' isn't something that quietly happens and then shows up in the credits. It'd be a contract violation. So why does everyone believe it? Three things stacked up. One: the movie is about AI. Sentient robots, adapted from Simon Stålenhag's illustrated novel about machine consciousness. The subject primes the accusation. Two: the reception was brutal. Fourteen percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Thirty on Metacritic. Against a reported three hundred and twenty million dollar budget — one of the most expensive films ever made. Critics used words like soulless and slop, and by 2025, soulless and AI had basically become synonyms in film criticism. Three: the Russo brothers have publicly talked up AI's future in movies, so people connected an unrelated dot. One distinction worth keeping straight: did it use AI, and did AI write it, are different questions. Big VFX pipelines have used machine learning for years — rotoscoping, denoising, face replacement. None of that is screenwriting. A tool that cleans up a matte line has nothing to do with who wrote the dialogue. Here's the uncomfortable conclusion. Two well-paid human screenwriters wrote it, and the movie was bad anyway. 'A robot made this' is just a more comforting story than 'expensive people made a three hundred and twenty million dollar film that didn't work.'
What authoritative sources say
People also ask
Who actually wrote The Electric State?
Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, longtime Russo brothers collaborators known for Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. The film is loosely adapted from Simon Stålenhag's 2018 illustrated novel.
Could AI have written it secretly without credit?
Not on a WGA-covered production without breaking the contract. The Guild's 2023 agreement holds that AI-generated material isn't 'literary material' and can't be credited or used to cut a writer's compensation.
Was AI used anywhere in the movie?
Machine learning is standard in modern VFX — rotoscoping, denoising, face work. Wikipedia lists the film in a generative-AI category without specifying the use. None of that is screenwriting.
Why do so many people think the script was AI-written?
It's a movie about robots that got 14% on Rotten Tomatoes against a $320 million budget, and critics called it soulless. In 2025, 'soulless' and 'AI-generated' became rhetorical synonyms.
Did the Russo brothers say anything about AI?
They've publicly discussed AI's potential future in filmmaking in general terms, which fuels the rumor. That's separate from any claim about this film's script, which has human credited writers.