Robert Downey Jr. has announced his intentions to sue any “future” executives who decide to create digital replicas of him with AI.
READ MORE: Beyond human imagination: How AI is pushing the boundaries of entertainment
Speaking on the On With Kara Swisher podcast earlier this month (October 21), the esteemed actor was asked about his thoughts on AI replicas and deepfakes. He replied: “There’s two tracks. How do I feel about everything that’s going on? I feel about it minimally because I have an actual emotional life that’s occurring that doesn’t have a lot of room for that.”
Downey Jr. – who himself has invested in AI companies – went on to explain that he doesn’t think Marvel would dabble in AI replicas: “To go back to the MCU, I’m not worried about them hijacking my character’s soul because there’s like three or four guys and gals who make all the decisions there anyway and they would never do that to me, with or without me.”
Podcast host Kara Swisher then suggested that as time passes, future executives that the actor doesn’t have a relationship with would “certainly” want to replicate him. Downey replied: “Well, you’re right. I would like to here state that I intend to sue all future executives just on spec.” When Swisher suggested that Downey could be dead by then, he quipped: “But my law firm will still be very active.”
Elsewhere in the chat, Downey spoke about his investments in AI companies – one company is a cyber security firm that combats cyber crimes, another is being used to clean up the environment – and explained the differences in his approach to his investments and the use of AI in Hollywood: “It always comes down again to not the technology or the opportunity to line my pockets as much as, ‘Who are the people involved with this?’”
Robert Downey Jr.. Credit: Han Myung-Gu/WireImage
“‘Do I think they have a moral psychology? For what reason are they deploying this? Is their steering committee sound? Do I have something to learn from this experience, can I be additive?’ So I’m a little more agnostic about these things,” he added.
Since the rise of AI in recent years, several actors and directors have voiced their concerns for the technology being used to create, or even replace, key human components in the film and TV industry.
Tim Burton in September last year called the use of AI “disturbing”: “I can’t describe the feeling it gives you. It reminded me of when other cultures say, ‘Don’t take my picture because it is taking away your soul.’ “What it does is it sucks something from you. It takes something from your soul or psyche; that is very disturbing, especially if it has to do with you. It’s like a robot taking your humanity, your soul.”
Last year, Wes Anderson denounced AI recreations of his work: “If somebody sends me something like that I’ll immediately erase it and say, ‘Please, sorry, do not send me things of people doing me.’
Earlier this month, actor Rachel Zegler voice her concerns of being replaced by AI: “I was really scared of being replaced by an artificial intelligence version of myself that they scanned when I was 18 and then never being able to work on a set again. What was stopping them from using that for the rest of my life?” She went to say that “465 photos taken of every corner of my body” were made for CGI stunts. “It was fucking dystopian,” she added.
Her comments came after Guillermo del Toro also recently spoke out about AI, claiming it can do “semi-compelling screensavers” and “that’s essentially that”.
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