Will Artificial Intelligence Kill Acting? Nicholas Cage Thinks It Could
By Movieguide® Contributor
During an acceptance speech at the Saturn Awards, Nicholas Cage warned against allowing AI to infiltrate the entertainment business, saying that it will be the death of any meaningful art.
“There is another world that is also disturbing me. It’s happening right now around all of us: the new AI world,” Cage said. “I am a big believer in not letting robots dream for us. Robots cannot reflect the human condition for us. That is a dead end if an actor lets one AI robot manipulate his or her performance even a little bit, and inch will eventually become a mile and all integrity, purity and truth of art will be replaced by financial interests only. We can’t let that happen.”
“The job of all art in my view, film performance included, is to hold a mirror to the external and internal stories of the human condition through the very human thoughtful and emotional process of recreation,” Cage continued. “A robot can’t do that.”
“If we let robots do that, it will lack all heart and eventually lose edge and turn to mush,” Cage added. “There will be no human response to life as we know it. It will be life as robots tell us to know it. I say, protect yourselves from AI interfering with you authentic and honest expressions.”
READ MORE: WHY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WON’T REPLACE FILMMAKERS
The sentiment shared in this speech reflects a resistance to AI that Cage promoted since it became a real issue in the industry in 2023.
But even though he holds such a strong stance against using AI, Cage has been forced to interact with the technology in recent roles. For SPIDER-MAN NOIR, his full body was scanned so AI could make his animated character in the show better match his real-life expressions. Nonetheless, Cage is worried what could be done with his image now that AI has access to it.
“They’re just going to steal my body and do whatever they want with it via digital AI…God, I hope not AI. I’m terrified of that,” he said last summer. “I’ve been very vocal about it. 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!”
This wasn’t even the first time Cage interacted with the technology. In his THE FLASH cameo, filmmakers used AI to completely replace a background and change the meaning of his scene. Cage was extremely upset by this use of the tech, as he had no idea it had even occurred until the movie was finished.
READ MORE: NICHOLAS CAGE CALLS AI ‘INHUMANE’: ‘A NIGHTMARE TO ME’
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