Ashton Kutcher has been criticised for praising the potential of using AI to create films and television shows.
The Two And A Half Men and That ‘70s Show star was speaking to Google CEO Eric Schmidt in Los Angeles this week when he extolled the virtues of OpenAI’s generative video too Sora.
“I have a beta version of it and it’s pretty amazing,” he said (via Variety). “You can generate any footage that you want. You can create good 10, 15-second videos that look very real. It still doesn’t quite understand physics…But if you look at the generation of this that existed one year ago as compared ot Sora, it’s leaps and bounds,”
“In fact, there’s footage in it that I would say you could easily use in a major motion picture or a television show.”
“You’ll just come up with an idea for a movie, then it will write the script, then you’ll input the script into the video generator and it will generate the movie,” he added.
He went on to suggest that eventually there would be no point in making films in the traditional way once AI develops fully, and pointed out that it will also save a lot of money.
The comments have seen a backlash from creatives in Hollywood. Former Rick & Morty writer Caitie Delaney hit back, saying: “When you take ANY humans off of a collaborative and creative pursuit you literally lose the humanity. A hollow, dumbass, pointless shell. TV will have the same artistic merit as dish soap.”
The writer Ash Laser added: “It’s such an ignorant, shortsighted, selfcentered, shortterm cost vs longterm gain mindset. You’re training it to replace YOU. And your kid’s dreams.”
The fact that Ashton Kutcher has a venture capitalist firm that is currently investing in AI should have been disclosed in the article.
He’s not speaking as a filmmaker (because he’s never been a director, DP, writer or editor) he’s speaking as a salesman for investments. https://t.co/v2R2jbysiF
— Alice Herring (@redherringdraws) June 6, 2024
Alice Herring responded: “The fact that Ashton Kutcher has a venture capitalist firm that is currently investing in AI should have been disclosed in the article. He’s not speaking as a filmmaker (because he’s never been a director, DP, writer or editor) he’s speaking as a salesman for investments.”
Last year, the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA and writers’ union the Writers Guild of America went on strike in part at protest around safeguards against the unregulated use of AI in the industry.
The use of AI in the creative industries continues to be a hotly contentious topic, with ongoing concerns about how and where emerging technology “learns” to produce its output and if it has permission to pull from data like books or music catalogues.
Last month, Sony Music sent letters to tech giants including Google, Microsoft and OpenAI demanding to know if they had used their songs to develop AI systems.
According to BBC, the letter was sent to more than 700 firms in total, writing that they had “reason to believe” that the recipients “may already have made unauthorized uses” of its music.
Sony Music has reportedly given firms a deadline to respond and said it will enforce its copyright policy “to the full extent permitted by applicable law”.
Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin and other writers are also currently suing the makers of ChatGPT for “systematic theft on a mass scale”, and more recently, Scarlett Johansson has claimed OpenAI used a voice similar to hers for ChatGPT, even after she allegedly denied their offer to collaborate.
As for musicians’ takes on A.I. technology, Nick Cave last year said that ChatGPT should “just fuck off and leave songwriting alone”. Slash this month also said that the use of AI in music “does not really thrill me”.
Last month, over 200 artists including Billie Eilish, Robert Smith, Stevie Wonder and Nicki Minaj signed an open letter put together by Artists Rights Alliance warning against the “predatory” use of AI in music, while MPs have suggested that musicians and celebrities should be protected against AI deepfakes by law.