James Cameron weighs in on the use of AI in Hollywood, specifically addressing the issue of AI-generated screenplays. Best known as the director of films like The Terminator, Titanic, and two Avatars, Cameron's films often to push technological boundaries. The Terminator directly deals with AI, imagining a future in which artificial intelligence has nearly wiped out all of humanity. Recent fears regarding AI have, of course, been rising, with Hollywood actors and writers now on strike in part due to disagreements with studios over AI.
Now, as debates continue to rage in Hollywood regarding AI's place in the movie-making process, Cameron discusses the topic in a recent interview with The Terminator director does express fear over the technology on a much more existential level. Check out two of Cameron's comments below regarding whether he shares concerns about AI's potential threat to humanity's very existence, and regarding its role in filmmaking specifically:
“I absolutely share their concern. I warned you guys in 1984! And you didn’t listen. You got to follow the money. Who’s building these things? They’re either building it to dominate marketing shares, so what are you teaching it? Greed. Or you’re building it for defensive purposes, so you’re teaching it paranoia. I think the weaponization of AI is the biggest danger.
“I think that we will get into the equivalent of a nuclear arms race with AI, and if we don’t build it, the other guys are for sure going to build it, and so then it’ll just escalate. You could imagine an AI in a combat theatre, the whole thing just being fought by the computers at a speed humans can no longer intercede, and you have no ability to deescalate.”
“I certainly wouldn’t be interested in having an AI write a script for me…unless they were really good. Let’s wait 20 years, and if an AI wins an Oscar for best screenplay, I think we’ve got to take them seriously.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of who wrote it. It’s a question of ‘is it a good story?’ I just don’t personally believe that a disembodied mind that’s just regurgitating what other embodied minds have said — about the life that they’ve had, about love, about lying, about fear, about mortality — and just put it all together into a word salad and then regurgitate it…
“I don’t believe that’s ever going to have something that’s going to move an audience. You have to be human to write that. I don’t know anyone that’s even thinking about having AI write a screenplay, but I certainly don’t know everybody in Hollywood. And Hollywood people do some crazy ass stuff.”
The Hollywood Debate About AI Explained
There are a number of reasons why the WGA and SAG-AFTRA have gone on strike, but AI has become one critical issue. While, broadly speaking, AMPTP wants to take a "wait and see" approach regarding AI, keeping the door open and having regular meetings about it, writers and actors are looking for some hard guidelines for just how AI can be used in the filmmaking process now.
For the striking WGA, some of the asks include clear rules regarding the use of AI in the script-writing process. While there are fears about AI-generated scripts eventually replacing those written by humans, specific fears at the moment seem to be focused more on the use of AI for things like rewrites and polishes, which would not cut out the human factor altogether but would severely limit it and potentially set the writing process on a dangerous path.
For actors, one such issue that just recently came to light is the fact that studios allegedly wanted to be able to scan and digitize background actors' likenesses for use in different movies in perpetuity. This would not only take control away from artists regarding the use of their own likenesses, but it would result in fewer actor jobs over all. The current debate over AI in Hollywood is a complex and nuanced issue that is sure to only become more complicated as these tools continue to evolve, but Cameron's comment suggests that AI's role in entertainment might someday be the least of humanity's worries.
Source: CTV News
