“We must be ready”

Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher has doubled down on the backlash against his praise for artificial intelligence technology.

During a recent conversation with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the Berggruen Salon in Los Angeles, the actor had nothing but praise for Sora, an AI technology from OpenAI that can produce videos based on verbal instructions of the user, according to Variety magazine.

Ashton Kutcher says you'll soon be able to “render an entire movie” with AI.

“You have an idea for a movie, then it will write the script, then you'll feed the script into the video generator and it will generate the movie.” https://t.co/nLsO4xPPMD

— Variety (@Variety) June 6, 2024

“I have a beta version of it and it's pretty amazing,” he said. “You can generate any footage you want. You can make good 10-second, 15-second videos that look very real. It still makes mistakes. It still doesn't fully understand the physics.”

“But if we look at the generation of this one that existed a year ago compared to Sora, there are steps by steps. In fact, there are images that I would say you could easily use in a major movie or TV show,” added.

The point I was getting at was that AI technology could dramatically alter the way TV shows and movies are made. It is a theme that he repeated several times throughout the interview.

“Why would you go out and shoot a floor plan for a house on a TV show when you could just create the floor plan for $100?” it continued. “Going out shooting would cost you thousands of dollars. Action scenes of me jumping off this building, you don't need a stunt person to do it, you could just go do it [with AI]”.

“You'll be able to act out a whole movie. You'll just come up with an idea for a movie, then write the script, then you feed the script into the video generator and it will generate the movie. Instead of watching a movie that someone else came up with, I can just generate and then watch my own movie,” he said.

While perfectly sane and reasonable, this rhetoric provoked a massive backlash from alt-rights who believe they are owed something.

Specific case:

It always seems to be the most untalented people who have nothing new to say who love this technology so much

— Lee FW (@LEEFWDESIGN) June 6, 2024

Ashton Kutcher just listed the people he had stopped working with. How many of those professions helped him get to where he is now?

— Phoenix Black: Screenwriter, Foster Mom, Aid Worker (@PhoenixBlackNow) June 7, 2024

A guy who peaked with The Butterfly Effect, 20 years ago – we should just replace the entire industry with directions!

There are a lot of great writers and great actors who make great movies. It's not Hollywood's fault, you're not one of them.

— Double M (@NerudaMalcos) June 6, 2024

Imagine Ashton Kutcher stepping on a movie set now, after going out and advocating for all those crews to lose their jobs and starve to death.

A bold choice, my friend. https://t.co/jb9Jsl3yxM

— @jfiliatrault.bsky.social (@jfiliatrault) June 6, 2024

pic.twitter.com/LpHkywCZSj

— Ope (@young_baklavaa) June 7, 2024

Kutcher has since doubled down, posting a Twitter thread explaining his line of reasoning and arguing that he doesn't believe AI technology will disrupt the film industry.

“I don't think AI will replace the film industry or the creative arts,” he tweeted. “It's an incredible tool that we should learn to work with to be more prolific and efficient as artists. Similarly we use Avid, final draft, green screen, Led bg and other technical tools. Acting as if it doesn't exist will be catastrophic.”

“[J]obs will change, denying that it is turning a blind eye to the facts. There used to be someone who recorded the film. there was usually someone who checked the door. ashton kutcher @aplusk. we have to be ready and understand what's coming,” he added.

Look at:

I don't think AI will replace the film industry or the creative arts. It is an amazing tool that we should learn to work with in order to be more prolific and efficient as artists. Similarly we use Avid, final draft, green screen, Led bg and other technical tools. Acting like this…

— Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) June 6, 2024

jobs will change, denying that it is turning a blind eye to the facts. There used to be someone who recorded the film. there was usually someone who checked the door.

— Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) June 6, 2024

we must be prepared and understand what is coming.

— Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) June 6, 2024

Senior Staff Writer
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V. Saxena is a writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.

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