An AI video of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise fighting goes viral. The technology learns fast. It’s going to get messy.

Welcome to the future

It was just a few short years ago that a janky-looking video of Will Smith eating spaghetti was released, being composed of nothing but ones and zeroes as an AI video. It was very crude, but the motion and the adaptation of physics that the video showcased, as not one frame was filmed with anything, showed a potentially scary future. It brings to mind the era when the Nintendo 64 and the Playstation had blocky graphics, but it still blew your mind.

Now, AI has been posing a threat on artists of all kind and Hollywood has been attempting to keep its abuse at bay. Stars have also been fighting to keep their images from being abused, such as when AI images of Taylor Swift went viral or when Scarlett Johansson‘s likeness was being used for ChatGPT and deepfake videos. And let’s not forget the attempt at making an AI actress with Tilly Norwood.

Viral video of Brad Pitt vs Tom Cruise

Very recently, a video went viral with a short scene of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise fighting each other in what looks like a scene from an action movie. Ruairi Robinson posted on X a series of videos that were created from the program Seedance 2.0. He says that the video below was made from just a two-line prompt.

In another video posted in the same thread, Brad Pitt squares off against a zombie ninja.

Then, Robinson also posts a video with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise fighting and, this time, there’s a bit of dramatic dialogue interjected. The dialogue is made for an edgy joke with Pitt fighting to avenge Jeffrey Epstein and Cruise explaining why he had to kill him.

And there is also this compilation of videos on YouTube that shows off a bunch of different scenarios. The first clip showcases Bruce Lee vs. Captain America. It’s got a more of a stylized animated style that looks like it could have been CGI, but as you watch on, there are clips of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li, Bruce Lee and Jet Li and Bruce Lee and Donnie Yen. And it’s those clips that look so scarily good. They look pretty damn authentic with the camera movements, sound effects, voices, and the likenesses have very little “uncanny valley” to them. They look like they could have come from the 70s, 80s and 90s.

It’s going to get messy

Many are reacting to these videos, saying that they could spell doom for Hollywood. And I am sometimes thinking that way too. But there are also obviously the many legal ramifications of such a practice. People have used the program Sora for a bevy of videos featuring past celebrities. As Hollywood fights against technology like this, Disney was reported to have taken a different approach and struck up a partnership with OpenAI. Being in bed with these companies could mean that they can control who is permitted for use and who is not. And inversely, the AI programs could be used as a filmmaking tool, as many have tried to argue.

When watching the aforementioned videos, you can notice that some of the physics are still not perfect, but that does not mean that a scene can be generated and an artist can go in and clean it up so it looks flawless.

It was also reported that Chinese cinema will be fully embracing AI to restore classic films and create a completely new A Better Tomorrow. It sounded ridiculous when the news first broke, but now more than ever, it seems possible. But how far are these companies willing to go when, while fun (it’s hard for me to not feel some excitement to see the martial arts legends in their primes fighting each other), they are also not allowing these past actors to rest in peace. Stars like Bruce Lee will be exploited in death and there is talk about Val Kilmer being recreated through AI for a new film.

AI — through personal use or for commercial use — can be done for entertainment or weaponized. A lot of infringement will be in our future. A lot of icky things, like the Robin Williams AI videos, will be in our future. There will be a lot of controversies forthcoming. People can also hide behind AI as a scapegoat for explaining video evidence. I do think some sort of regulation will come to pass and be enforced sometime in the years ahead, but in the meantime, it’s going to get messy.

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