James Cameron, the director of Avatar: Fire and Ash, who sits on the board of Stability AI, holds a deeply disquieting view towards the notion of generative AI replacing actors. He has previously been vocal about the use of artificial intelligence in filmmaking, but with a distinct limit on how he feels it should be employed. He deems motion capture as the "purest form" of performance, admitting that it was a "mistake" to be reluctant to "pull the curtain back" on the CGI-assisted technique while working on 2009's Avatar, in order to keep the "magic unblemished" for audiences.
During an interview on CBS Sunday Mornings, James expressed his dismay: "For years, there was this notion that 'Oh, they're doing something strange with computers and they're replacing actors,' but once you delve deeper and see what we're doing, it's a celebration of the actor-director moment and the actor-to-actor moment. It's a celebration of what I call the sanctity of the actor's performance moment."
He then shifted his focus to generative AI, stating, "Now, at the other end of the spectrum, you have generative AI, where they can create a character, an actor, and even a performance from scratch with a text prompt. It's like, no. That's horrifying to me. That's the opposite of what we're doing." The Oscar-winning director emphasized that he never wants to "replace" actors with technology, adding that he loves working with actors and doesn't want a computer to do what he prides himself on being able to do with them.
However, James does have a soft spot for AI, as it could potentially help in "making VFX cheaper." He explained, "Right now, imaginative films, fantastic films, science-fiction films — they're starting to die off as a breed because they're expensive and the theatrical marketplace has contracted. Studios are only comfortable spending those kinds of dollar amounts on blue-chip IP, things we've seen and know. A movie like Avatar would never get made in that environment. That was brand-new IP; nobody had ever heard of it."
