A-List actors including Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon, Rosario Dawson, and more have joined 11,500 Hollywood artists, producers, writers, actors, and other industry insiders to warn about the danger that artificial intelligence represents to creativity and human ingenuity.
“The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works and must not be permitted,” the creatives said in a letter published Tuesday.
The list of signers included actors, singers, writers, musicians, historians, and others who make a living from the creative process.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a topic of concern in Hollywood for years and formed one of the main reasons for the strike by the actors and writers unions in 2023. The artists were worried that AI could be used to eliminate humans in the creative process, and actors worried that their likenesses and voices could be replicated by computers without their consent.
Use of AI to recreate the visage and voices of celebrities is a hot button issue for actors and featured as one of the chief worries of actors during the 2023 Hollywood actors strike. And this year, voice actors for the video gaming industry went on strike and one of their chief fears was the use of AI to replace them.
In May, a poll of film industry workers found that 42 percent feared that AI would be used to replace human actors and other artists and that AI would “harm people” in the entertainment sector.
Actor Nicholas Cage, for instance, warned that AI will lead to theft of intellectual property and even remarked that computers are “just going to steal my body.”
Actor Sean Penn also blasted AI and in 2023 said that using it will create a “human obscenity.”
Ron Nyswaner, the author of the film Philadelphia, also warned about AI this year when he said that it will create soulless dreck that will remove the possibility for artists and viewers to “think and feel.”
Prominent film directors have been warning about AI for several years. In 2023, for instance, director Tim Burton worried that AI is “like a robot taking your humanity.”
Burton is far from alone. Many notable filmmakers have also spoken out against the use of artificial intelligence.
Producer, writer, and director James Cameron warned that AI will lead to a Judgement Day-style cataclysm with out-of-control algorithms taking control of warfare.
Director Ridley Scott of Blade Runner fame called AI bad for humanity, and compared it to a “technical hydrogen bomb.”
Christopher Nolan said AI will surely reach an “Oppenheimer moment” — or a point of no return — and that people need to be “held accountable” for its development.
On the other hand, actor Ashton Cutcher praised the coming of AI and said that it will level the playing field and democratize entertainment so that just anyone could make compelling films and TV shows.
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