James Cameron says AI-generated actors, like Tilly Norwood, are “horrifying”
James Cameron and AI
James Cameron famously warned audiences about the dangers of artificial intelligence with his Terminator films. In fact, the reality he finds us in with AI becoming a growing tool (or a toy for some people) is one of the reasons the filmmaker is having a difficult time finding a new angle to explore the subject while he brainstorms for a new Terminator film. Cameron recently revealed, “I’m at a point right now where I have a hard time writing science fiction. I’m tasked with writing a new Terminator story. I’ve been unable to get started on that very far because I don’t know what to say that won’t be overtaken by real events. We are living in a science fiction age right now.”
A New Reality of AI Generated Actors
Variety reports on Cameron making an appearance on CBS’ Sunday Morning to promote Avatar: Fire and Ash, when the filmmaker addressed the notion of actors completely generated from AI programs. Cameron remembered how people found his photo-real CGI characters from the first Avatar to be threatening to the business, “For years, there was this sense that, ‘Oh, they’re doing something strange with computers and they’re replacing actors,’ when in fact, once you really drill down and you see what we’re doing, it’s a celebration of the actor-director moment.”
However, with the Tilly Norwood controversy becoming a very real possibility, Cameron now shows his concerns on the changing times,
Now, go to the other end of the spectrum, and you’ve got generative AI, where they can make up a character. They can make up an actor. They can make up a performance from scratch with a text prompt. It’s like, no. That’s horrifying to me. That’s the opposite. That’s exactly what we’re not doing.”
A New Realization in Just a Couple of Months
It wasn’t long ago that Cameron was optimistic that AI wouldn’t completely take the artists out of the creation process of filmmaking. While he wasn’t considering a generative AI actor at the time, a couple of months ago, he talked about working on the special effects with the artists has given him the revelation that AI could never truly take over. Cameron starts to explain, “The creative culture is so strong across all these artists that I can look at a shot for review for the very first time and say ‘It’s done.’”
He, then, expounded on his outlook, “Now, they may be on version 400, but they’ve had enough input previously that they’re now working within a culture that encourages the creativity and the specificity of our Avatar world and our characters. So this idea of really encouraging them to think as storytellers is really paying off. And this is why the Gen AI stuff is never going to take the place of that. We need our artists. It’s artists in control of the process, right?”
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