‘Horrifying’: James Cameron warns against AI replacing actors

Filmmaker James Cameron, the visionary behind technological milestones like Avatar and The Terminator, has voiced his strong condemnation for the rise of generative AI in Hollywood. For him, the very idea of AI-created actors is "horrifying."

James Cameron warns against actors generated by text-prompts

The Oscar-winning director made the comments in a recent interview, in which he drew a firm line between his groundbreaking performance-capture technology and the new wave of purely synthetic performers.

As James Cameron made clear, his use of technology, which some had criticised at an earlier point for potentially replacing human talent, was actually the opposite. He has emphasised that performance capture is a "celebration of the actor-director moment," whereby the subtlety of a human performance gets translated into a digital character. For him, the human actor remains absolutely central to the creative process. "I don't want a computer doing what I pride myself on being able to do with actors," he said. "I love working with actors."

However, the director said he was deeply unsettled by the latest developments in generative AI. He cited as an example Tilly Norwood, the AI-generated performer unveiled earlier this year that has reportedly attracted the interest of at least one talent agency, causing widespread anxiety throughout the industry. "Now, go to the other end of the spectrum, and you've got generative AI," said James. "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."

While acknowledging that AI might be useful in making visual effects cheaper, which could potentially help fantastic films get made outside of "blue-chip" franchises, James Cameron's comments underline a growing ethical debate. The powerful stance taken by this director lends considerable weight to the call to preserve human artistry and the sanctity of the actor's performance in the face of rapidly advancing technology.

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