Artificial intelligence (AI) has been on booming in recent years and months, and many are concerned about what it could mean for Hollywood. That being said, AI has long since arrived – most of us just didn’t know it yet. With the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) having spent the summer of 2023 on strike, discussions regarding its future in the entertainment industry are becoming much more pressing.
AI is already being used in Hollywood
If you thought AI wasn’t already being used in Hollywood, think again. It’s actually being used in many different ways, largely off-screen. For example, without audiences even knowing, AI was a major component of an installment of Star Wars, one of the most popular franchises ever.
Since 1977, actor James Earl Jones has voiced the globally recognized supervillain, Darth Vader. However, now in his 90s, he’s ready to take a step back from working altogether. Clearly, this could’ve proved problematic for the future of the franchise. However, Jones signed over the rights to his archival voice work to Respeecher. The company used sound bites from his previous works to leverage AI technology and recreate the sound of his voice without his physical presence.
This form of AI was featured in Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022), which is why Darth Vader may have sounded more like his 1977 self than in more recent films.
Tom Hanks shares his take on the future of AI
Celebrities are keenly aware that there could be an AI version of themselves in the future – and this includes Tom Hanks. On an episode of The Adam Buxton Podcast, the actor talked about the possibility of him remaining on-screen after death through the use of AI.
“Anybody can now recreate themselves at any age they are by way of AI or deep fake technology,” he said. “I could be hit by a bus tomorrow and that’s it, but my performances can go on and on and on.” Hanks believes AI will progress so much that “there’ll be nothing to tell you that it’s not me and me alone and it’s going to have some degree of lifelike quality.”
When host Adam Buxton suggested that audiences will know the difference between the real Hanks and an AI-generated one, the actor responded, “Without a doubt people will be able to tell, but the question is, will they care? There are some people that won’t care, that won’t make that delineation.”
With AI becoming such a major issue in Hollywood, Hanks explained that there are “discussions going on in all of the guilds, all of the agencies, and all of the legal firms in order to come up with the legal ramifications of my face and my voice and everybody else’s being our intellectual property.” He said that he saw this point coming ever since his 2004 film, The Polar Express, which saw the crew input “a huge amount of our own data in a computer.”
“We saw this coming, we saw that there was going to be this ability in order to take zeros and ones inside a computer and turn it into a face and a character,” he continued. “That has only grown a billionfold since then and we see it everywhere.”
Paul McCartney is using AI to come out with one last Beatles song
Hollywood isn’t the only place where AI is being incorporated into production. The music industry has also seen a surge in the technology’s use. While some have their reservations, Paul McCartney of the Beatles is using AI to release one last recording by the band.
While he hasn’t released the name of the song, many speculate it’s John Lennon’s “Now and Then,” which he recorded in his apartment on a cassette tape in 1978. Following his death in 1980, Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, gave McCartney the cassette, which was labeled, “For Paul.”
In 1995, when the remaining three members of the Beatles compiled tier career-spanning anthology, they tried their hand at reprising the song, but abandoned it after George Harrison called it “rubbish.” McCartney explained, “It didn’t have a very good title, it needed a bit of reworking, but it had a beautiful verse and it had John singing it. [But] George didn’t like it. The Beatles being a democracy, we didn’t do it.”
It wasn’t until a custom AI was created that could pull Lennon’s vocals that releasing “Now and Then” became more feasible. “[Jackson] was able to extricate John’s voice from a ropey little bit of cassette,” McCartney told Radio 4. “We had John’s voice and a piano and he could separate them with AI. They tell the machine: ‘That’s the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar.’”
He continued, “So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles record, it was a demo that John had and we were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI. Then we can mix the record, as you would normally do. So it gives you some sort of leeway.”
While many assumed this meant AI was being used to create the song, McCartney later clarified his comments, saying it was used to clean up the original recordings. “Can’t say too much at this stage but to be clear, nothing has been artificially or synthetically created. It’s all real and we all play on it. We cleaned up some existing recordings – a process which has gone on for years. We hope you love it as much as we do.”
McCartney shared his views on the revolutionary new technology, saying, “I’m not on the internet that much but people will say to me: ‘Oh, yeah, there’s a track where John’s singing one of my songs,’ and it’s just AI … it’s kind of scary but exciting, because it’s the future. We’ll just have to see where that leads.”
Dolly Parton weighs in on the use of AI
Dolly Parton opened up about the use of AI in an interview with UK publication, The Independent. In particular, she revealed she has no interest in becoming a hologram after her death. A number of deceased musicians have been brought back to stage via the use of AI holograms, including Whitney Houston and Tupac Shakur – however, the latter instance was slightly different.
Swedish pop group ABBA has also made use of the technology.
“I think I’ve left a great body of work behind,” Parton told The Independent. “I have to decide how much of that high-tech stuff I want to be involved [with] because I don’t want to leave my soul here on this earth. I think with some of this stuff I’ll be grounded here forever…I’ll be around, we’ll find ways to keep me here.”
The country singer also joked that “everything” about her, including “any intelligence,” was artificial, anyway.
Justine Bateman is warning Hollywood to prepare
During the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, Justine Bateman voiced her issues with the ensuing AI takeover.
“The really kind of harsh reality of AI in the entertainment business is it’s trained on all of our past work, all of our scripts, our films, all these actors, performances, all of this, so it’s a regurgitation. It’s an amalgamation,” she told KTLA 5 in an interview. “You give it a task, and it spits out some new product based on all of our past work.”
She said the Copyright Office has been heavily involved in the matter, as it could be “a massive infringement, the size of which we’ve never seen before.” She warned Screen Actors Guild (SAG) actors “not accept any AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) proposal” that doesn’t protect against AI, including their “image and voice,” and says that the protection of these aspects should become a top priority.
Unfortunately, the AMPTP refuses to engage in negotiations, which Bateman says is “extremely troubling.” She explained, “If the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild can’t get restrictions on AI, I don’t personally believe that there’s any other choice but to strike, because them saying, ‘we’re not going to even talk to you about AI,’ means they are not only going to use it, but they’re already planning on using it.”
Justine Bateman’s previous experience guides her opinion
Justine Bateman has previous experience in preparing for changes in Hollywood, as she served on the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee when they went on strike in 2007-08. Back then, people weren’t considering the possibility that money could be made off of a video on the internet. However, despite what seemed like an impossibility at the time, she still made sure she negotiated for “some real estate in that area.”
Now, streaming has become its own job title. “The streamers are the most profitable,” she said. “They’re some of the biggest companies in the world, not in entertainment, in the world.”
With this hindsight, she’s trying to warn that AI could have the very same effect in Hollywood, with the very real possibility of it replacing writers and actors in the future. “For them to not restrict AI and to not give a share of the billions and billions of dollars they’re making off of the work of the writers, the crew, the directors, the actors is obscene.”
Like James Earl Jones, there are several actors who are voluntarily “sign[ing] away the rights to future use of their image and voice.” Although the actor’s motivation was his age, others are doing so in the hopes agents will book them for more voiceover opportunities.
In Bateman’s opinion, AI is simply being used for “human greed.” She said, “It’s replacing human expression. I’m saying that’s ridiculous. We don’t need to replace human expression. With AI. There’s not a problem that needs to be solved.”
Samuel L. Jackson has been concerned for years
In an interview with Rolling Stone, actor Samuel L. Jackson expressed surprise that others were just now sounding the alarm on the use of AI in Hollywood. “People just started worrying about that? I asked about that a long time ago,” he said.
When he was scanned for George Lucas‘ Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), he asked the director what that was all about. “George and I are good friends so we kind of had a laugh about it because I thought he was doing it because he had all those old guys in Episode I, and if something happened to them, he still wanted to put ‘em in the movie.”
Jackson said he crosses out the words “in perpetuity” and “known and unknown” when they appear on contracts. “It’s my way of saying, ‘No, I do not approve of this.’”
Robin Williams’ daughter speaks out about AI
Robin Williams has since been brought into the discussion over AI, thanks to his daughter, Zelda, who took to Instagram to share her thoughts on the technology’s use and the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.
“I am not an impartial voice in SAG’s fight against AI,” Williams shared in her Instagram stories. “I’ve witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad. This isn’t theoretical, it is very very real. I’ve already heard AI used to get his ‘voice’ to say whatever people want and while I find it personally disturbing, the ramifications go far beyond my own feelings.
“Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices, to voice cartoons, to put their HUMAN effort and time into the pursuit of performance,” she continued. “These recreations are, at their very best, a poor facsimile of greater people, but at their worst, a horrendous Frankenstein monster, cobbled together from the worst bits of everything this industry is, instead of what it should stand for.”
One of the key topics the Screen Actor’s Guild is striking against is the increased use of AI in Hollywood and how that could impact the future of content creation.
George Carlin’s daughter calls out AI-generated comedy special
George Carlin may have died in 2008, but that doesn’t mean he’s stopped performing stand-up – at least, when you add AI into the equation. Just under 16 years after the controversial comedian passed from heart failure, a brand new AI-generated special, George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead, has been released.
From a comedy AI program used by Chad Kultgen and Will Sasso, the hour-long special, released on YouTube, sees an artificial impression of Carlin talking about several hot-button social and political issues, and begins with the disclaimer, “What you’re about to hear is not George Carlin.”
He even broaches the topic of AI itself.
“There’s one line of work that is most threatened by AI – one job that is most likely to be completely erased because of artificial intelligence: stand-up comedy,” the AI-generated version of the comedian says in the special. “I know what all the stand-up comics across the globe are saying right now: ‘I’m an artist and my art form is too creative, too subtle to be replicated by a machine. No computer program can tell a fart joke as good as me.'”
Carlin’s daughter, Kelly, took to X (formerly Twitter) to denounce the special, writing, “My dad spent a lifetime perfecting his craft from his very human life, brain and imagination. No machine will ever replace his genius. These AI generated products clever attempts at trying to recreate a mind that will never exist again.
“Let’s let the artist’s work speak for itself,” she continued. “Humans are so afraid of the void that we can’t let what has fallen into it stay. Here’s an idea, how about we give some actual living human comedians a listen to? But if you want to listen to the genuine George Carlin, he has 14 specials that you can find anywhere.”
Suing for copyright infringement
George Carlin’s estate sued those responsible for the recent AI-generated comedy special featuring his likeness. The lawsuit, filed in California federal court on January 25, 2024, accuses the team behind George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead of using the late comedian’s body of work to train an AI bot on how to act and speak like Carlin – a violation of his copyright, as the use was unauthorized.
According to the filing, which is one of the first of its kind, Carlin’s estate is looking not only for the special’s removal, but for unspecified damages, saying the “Defendants sought to capitalize on the name, reputation, and likeness of George Carlin in creating, promoting, and distributing the Dudesy Special and using generated images of Carlin, Carlin’s voice, and images designed to evoke Carlin’s presence on a stage.”
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Kelly Carlin said, “We have to draw a line in the sand. This is going to be a fight on every front, with entertainment at the center.”
The comedian’s daughter also added in a statement to Variety, “The ‘George Carlin’ in that video is not the beautiful human who defined his generation and raised me with love. It is a poorly executed facsimile cobbled together by unscrupulous individuals to capitalize on the extraordinary goodwill my father established with his adoring fan base.”
In a statement to The New York Times, a representative for Dudesy host Will Sasso claimed the special wasn’t actually written by AI, but, instead, by Chad Kultgen. Given how new AI is, there are currently no federal laws that cover its use in mimicking a person’s voice or likeness, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Some states have passed publicity laws, but not all of them have one in place.
Settling the case
The case surrounding George Carlin’s likeness was quickly settled, with it resulting in the defendants being “PERMANENTLY RESTRAINED AND ENJOINED FROM” using the comedian’s image, voice and likeness in their content.
While this seems like the end of the matter, Carlin’s daughter, Kelly, believes it’s only the beginning, with her telling the media, “I am pleased that this matter was resolved quickly and amicably, and I am grateful that the defendants acted responsibly by swiftly removing the video they made.
“While it is a shame that this happened at all, I hope this case serves as a warning about the dangers posed by AI technologies and the need for appropriate safeguards not just for artists and creatives, but every human on earth,” she continued.
Nicolas Cage doesn’t want anyone using his likeness after he’s gone
Nicolas Cage is yet another celebrity nervous about the progress of AI and its potential to render near-exact images, expressions and sound of stars. He’s recently had to undergo body scans for the projects he’s been working on, but says he is “terrified” of them being used for AI purposes.
In an interview with The New Yorker, Cage explained his opinion on the constantly-improving technology:
“I’ve been very vocal about it. […] And it makes me wonder, you know, where will the truth of the artists end up? Is it going to be replaced? Is it going to be transmogrified? Where’s the heartbeat going to be? I mean, what are you going to do with my body and my face when I’m dead? I don’t want you to do anything with it!”
California’s governor signs into law two AI-related bills
On September 16, 2024, California Gov. Gavin Newsom was at the headquarters of SAG-AFTRA to sign into law two bills relating to the use of AI in Hollywood. The two pieces of legislation add to protections that came about as a result of the four-month actors’ strike in 2023, with them being expanded to cover commercials and voiceover work, including that done on video games.
In a statement, Newsom said:
“We continue to wade through uncharted territory when it comes to how AI and digital media is transforming the entertainment industry, but our North Star has always been to protect workers. This legislation ensures the industry can continue thriving while strengthening protections for workers and how their likeness can or cannot be used.”
California’s legislature has passed other AI-related bills, which Newsom still has to give his signature. As of now, he’s not publicly stated if he’ll lend his support and sign them into law.
David Attenborough isn’t a fan of AI recreating his voice
In a news segment, BBC played a voiceover clip from David Attenborough’s new series, Asia. In it, he says, “If you think you’ve seen the best the natural world has to offer, think again. There is nowhere else on Earth with so many untold stories. Welcome then, to Asia.”
The broadcaster then played an AI-generated version of the same clip and asked viewers if they could differentiate the two. It’s since been reported that the voice is being used by various YouTube channels to report on the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War.
Speaking in a statement to BBC, Attenborough shared his unease about the recreation, saying, “Having spent a lifetime trying to speak what I believe to be the truth, I am profoundly disturbed to find that these days, my identity is being stolen by others and greatly object to them using it to say whatever they wish.”
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The person who made the AI-generated version of Attenborough’s voice then responded, in the biologist’s voice, “Let’s set the record straight. Unless Mr Attenborough has been moonlighting for us in secret, and under an assumed name with work authorization in the United States, he is not on our payroll. I am not David Attenborough. We are both male British voices for sure, but I am not David Attenborough for anyone out there who might be confused.”