Acclaimed filmmaker James Cameron has delivered a stark critique of artificial intelligence in creative industries, branding the concept of AI-generated actors as "horrifying." The director, renowned for his pioneering use of technology in blockbusters like Avatar, made the comments during an interview with CBS's Sunday Morning programme.
Cameron's Stark Contrast: Motion Capture vs. Generative AI
Speaking ahead of the release of the third Avatar film, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Cameron drew a clear line between the technology he embraces and the AI tools causing concern in Hollywood. He praised motion-capture performance as "a celebration of the actor-director moment," a collaborative process that captures a human performer's essence.
He then positioned generative AI at the opposite extreme. "They can make up a character. They can make up an actor. They can make up a performance from scratch with a text prompt. It's like, no. That's horrifying to me," Cameron stated emphatically. He expressed a firm desire not to replace the collaborative work he does with actors, stating, "I don't want a computer doing what I pride myself on being able to do with actors."
The 'Blender' Effect: Why AI Lacks True Novelty
Cameron, who also serves as a director for the UK-based AI company Stability AI, elaborated on what he sees as the fundamental creative limitation of generative AI. He argued that because AI models are trained exclusively on existing human art and data, they are incapable of genuine originality.
"What generative AI can't do is create something new that's never been seen," he explained. "You will innately see, essentially, all of human art and human experience put into a blender, and you'll get something that is kind of an average of that." This process, he contends, filters out the unique, idiosyncratic qualities that define great art and performance.
He highlighted the loss of the "individual screenwriter's unique lived experience and their quirks" and the "idiosyncrasies of a particular actor," elements he views as sacred to the artistic process.
A Call to Raise the Bar for Human Creativity
Far from being purely pessimistic, Cameron framed the rise of AI as a challenge that should push human artists to greater heights. He suggested that the technology "causes us to have to set our bar to a very disciplined level, and to continue to be out-of-the-box imaginative."
In his view, the very act of human performance and real-time creation will become more valued than ever. "The act of performance, the act of actually seeing an artist creating in real time, will become sacred," Cameron concluded, asserting the enduring and irreplaceable role of human genius in the arts.
