All this talk coming from Hollywood against AI is either hypocrisy, ignorance, or self-interest. AI is coming. Nothing will stop it. And that’s a good thing.
As the New York Post points out, A-level names such as Martin Scorsese, Ben Affleck, Michael Caine, Matthew McConaughey, Darren Aronofsky, and Doug Liman have already jumped on board. And while they pay lip service to the trade unions, claiming no human job will ever be replaced with AI, everyone knows that’s total BS.
Affleck’s AI company, InterPositive, claims it will only use AI in post-production to enhance lighting and remove things like stunt ropes, which is laughable. CGI already does this, and Netflix recently dropped $600 million to purchase the company, which, as the Post points out, “is a lot of money for apparent ‘rope-removing’ tech.”
“Keen not to tip their hands, the main players in Hollywood are playing their cards close to their vest,” the Post reports accurately.
One media insider told the Post, “The thing with AI right now in Hollywood: Everyone’s lying just a little bit… Studios are lying about how much they’re using it.”
Doug Liman is currently shooting a movie starring Oscar-winner Casey Affleck. Thanks to AI, the budget dropped from $300 million to $75 million. The movie will have 200 locations. You see, there is no moral or artistic difference between using AI and CGI. The difference in cost, though, is massive because you don’t need 1,200 coders recreating Antarctica.
The late Val Kilmer will soon appear entirely in AI form in an upcoming feature.
If you want to know just how great AI can be and how much it can improve our lives, call Starlink’s customer service line. I was floored at how helpful, concise, and quick it was. Honestly, it was one of the best customer service experiences I’ve ever had. No BS. No foreign accent. To the point. Understood what I wanted. Answered immediately.
It’s simply a matter of time before someone with real talent delivers a feature-length AI movie that blows everyone’s mind in the same way The Matrix did in 1999. That will happen. It will happen at an absurdly low price. And Hollywood’s biggest fear is that they will not be the ones to make it happen — that it happens on YouTube.
That’s the real beauty of AI. AI will allow outsiders to tell their stories using top-shelf production values. No longer can the corrupt gatekeepers keep outsiders out because no longer will you need millions of dollars, studio access, actors, or studio distribution.
Further, AI could not come at a better time when we are saddled with an entertainment industry so out of touch with its customers that they believed a plain-looking, mouthy little Supergirl would be a hit, Marvel fans wanted homosexuality, and the Michael Jackson biopic would flop.
The entertainment industry is about to get Napster’d, and I’m fine with that, and smart people like those listed above understand the revolution has already begun and are getting on board.
Matthew McConaughey, per this report, has filed “eight trademark applications to stop his likeness from appearing online.” However, he is also investing in a company “using [AI] to translate his voice into Spanish.”
Sounds to me like McConaughey is preparing to do what I’ve predicted actors and stars will start doing, and that’s make a freaken fortune licensing their image to appear in movies and streaming content until the end of time.
What’s a Matthew McConaughey worth to an AI production company? Not the man himself, who will eventually age out of leading man roles and die. Not the man who can say “no” and who you must schedule around and fly out to locations. No, think about owning prime-of-his-life Matthew McConaughey (or Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise or Sandra Bullock) forever. What’s that worth? Would someone pay $300 million or even a billion to McConaughey? Trust me, these stars and the estates of iconic stars (Cary Grant, etc.) will cash in.
We are in for an amazing future, a miraculous tech revolution no amount of denial or whining can stop.