Nicolas Cage has slammed artificial intelligence by saying any actor who lets it alter their performance is approaching “a dead end” as “robots cannot reflect the human condition.”
As reported by Variety, Cage won the best actor award for his role in Dream Scenario at the Saturn Awards and used his acceptance speech as an opportunity to speak out on AI.
” I have to thank Kristoffer Borgli for his direction, his writing, his editing and for creating this incredibly disturbing but hilarious world that he dreamt up,” Cage began. “But there is another world that is also disturbing me.
“It’s happening right now around all of us: the new AI world. 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, an 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. 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. 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 your authentic and honest expressions.”
Cage isn’t the first actor to share such sentiments against AI, though its use has perhaps been more prevalent in the voice acting space so far, where entire performances have been recreated even in high profile video games.
Several voice actors have rallied against it, including Grand Theft Auto 5’s Ned Luke who called out a chatbot which used his voice. The Witcher voice actor Doug Cockle also told IGN that AI was “inevitable” but “dangerous”, sharing in Luke’s assessment that chatbots and similar uses are “effectively robbing [voice actors] of income.”
Filmmakers have voiced their opinions too, of course, though not always in unison. Legendary director Tim Burton called AI generated art “very disturbing,” while Justice League and Rebel Moon director Zack Snyder has said filmmakers need to embrace AI instead of “standing on the sidelines with your hands on your hips.”
Photo by Gregg DeGuire/Variety via Getty Images.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
