# AI misuse is the creator's responsibility, not the tool's

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/ai-misuse-is-the-creators-responsibility-not-the-tools/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Cristóbal Valenzuela](https://realalpha.app/builders/cristobal-valenzuela/) · Cristóbal Valenzuela is co-founder and CEO of Runway. · Co-founded Runway, an applied AI research company whose creative suite has more than 30 AI-powered tools.
- Host: [Alex Konrad](https://realalpha.app/people/alex-konrad/) · Founder & editor, Upstarts Media · Ran Forbes' Midas List for ten years and co-created its Cloud 100 list; founded Upstarts in 2025.
- Show: Upstarts
- Episode: [Runway’s Cris Valenzuela: Building The Hollywood-Friendly Video AI That OpenAI Couldn’t](https://realalpha.app/v/hBT2oKYGcKU/), May 1, 2026
- Moment: 32:56 to 36:12 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/ai-misuse-is-the-creators-responsibility-not-the-tools/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/hBT2oKYGcKU/?t=1976

## Quote

> “You're going to blame **the intention and the creator** and the person who did that. And I think AI is the same.”
> — [Cristóbal Valenzuela](https://realalpha.app/builders/cristobal-valenzuela/) at [35:12](https://realalpha.app/v/hBT2oKYGcKU/?t=2112) · Upstarts

## Takeaways

1. He expects AI to become ordinary infrastructure, like the internet.
2. He separates the tool from the creator's intent and actions.
3. His car analogy assigns responsibility to the person misusing technology.

## About this segment

Cristóbal Valenzuela says misuse should be judged by the creator's intent and conduct, not by AI itself. He compares it to holding drivers responsible for drunk-driving crashes rather than carmakers.

From “Runway’s Cris Valenzuela: Building The Hollywood-Friendly Video AI That OpenAI Couldn’t”, May 1, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/hBT2oKYGcKU/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[33:05](https://realalpha.app/v/hBT2oKYGcKU/?t=1985) via ai for perpetuity will that be something that we just expect is normal or is that still one of those weird edge cases you know yeah so i guess there are a couple things to unpack from that the first one is like um what's normal right and and again that's the role of technologies to define and standardize what's normal yeah we live in a world where if i say the word hollywood that's normal to everyone everyone knows if i say a film everyone knows what a film is it's a it's ingrained in our collective imagination if you travel back in time 150 years ago and i tell you a film and i tell you hollywood and i tell you i can make a living by like editing films in like a software you're gonna be like that's insane none of that things make sense first of all and secondly if i try to make an exercise the thing you're speaking about is that this like really

[33:53](https://realalpha.app/v/hBT2oKYGcKU/?t=2033) bad photography thing you think it's going to make an industry you're no it's not gonna work right that's a really interesting point because like Hollywood is the it's the result of science it's technology like Hollywood movie making is an art that it's rooted in technology and so when people might feel conflicted or have specific thinking things about how technology changes filmmaking that's like you're putting water in the ocean it's like the same thing right So for me, it's a constant evolution of the process of making things.

[34:26](https://realalpha.app/v/hBT2oKYGcKU/?t=2066) And we're thinking about it in one way in like media and Hollywood, but actually the implications are way broader than that. From that perspective, from how people think about and how they normalize it, we're very soon going to get my approach and my prediction is we're going to get very soon to the moment in time where we think about AI in the same way we think about cameras or Hollywood, or we think about the internet.

[34:46](https://realalpha.app/v/hBT2oKYGcKU/?t=2086) You don't think about the internet anymore. This is just parts of what you do every day. You don't have to say, this podcast is going to go live in the internet. Of course, it's going to go in there. Where else are we going to go? It just normalizes this and you get used to it. We're approaching that hopefully very soon. And then on the second part on like use cases, when you say like, I don't know, when a doctor dies, my position on that is like that has nothing to do with AI.

[35:10](https://realalpha.app/v/hBT2oKYGcKU/?t=2110) Right. You can anyone can just take any traditional computer graphics editing software and do that today. No way. You're not going to blame like whatever software people use for that. You're going to blame the intention and the creator and the person who did that. And I think AI is the same. The fact that you can do it faster doesn't change the rules of the system of how people should learn how to use it and what are the consequences if you misuse it.

[35:35](https://realalpha.app/v/hBT2oKYGcKU/?t=2135) And so it changes a little bit the equation of where like, don't put the responsibility in the tool. Don't put this responsibility in the technology. Put it on people. Because that's what we've done collectively with all technology altogether. If you take a car drunk and you crash, Toyota is not going to get sued. You're going to get sued, right? And so it's the same kind of way of thinking. If it's a technology, then we should think about it and treat it like any other technology.

[35:59](https://realalpha.app/v/hBT2oKYGcKU/?t=2159) I know that you have talked about and believe that this also democratizes the access to