AI actors horrify James Cameron and he wants no part of it

• James Cameron has warned that AI-generated actors are “horrifying” and threaten real performance
• The comment came after the release of fully digital actor Tilly Norwood
• The advent of AI performers has provoked backlash from SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood stars

James Cameron, a director synonymous with digital wizardry, has seen the future of filmmaking, and he wants no part of it. “Horrifying,” he called it during a recent interview on CBS. He wasn’t talking about killer robots or Titanic sequels - he meant generative AI, and specifically, its growing capacity to generate entire actors from scratch.

“Now, go to the other end of the spectrum,” Cameron said, contrasting his use of motion capture and CGI in Avatar with today’s AI trend, “and you’ve got generative AI, where they can make up a character. They can make up an actor. They can make up a performance from ...