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James Cameron Calls AI-Generated Actors ‘Horrifying’

He argues generative systems recycle past art rather than producing original performance.

Overview

  • In a CBS Sunday Morning interview tied to Avatar: Fire and Ash, Cameron contrasted performance capture that elevates actors with text-prompted fabrications.
  • He said AI models trained on existing work yield an "average" and cannot express a writer’s lived experience or an actor’s idiosyncrasies.
  • Cameron added that AI could have a narrow role in making visual-effects work cheaper.
  • At the Marrakech Film Festival, jury member Jenna Ortega called AI soulless and warned such output could become "mental junk food" that viewers reject.
  • Fellow jurors and peers, including Bong Joon Ho and Celine Song, voiced sharp skepticism as the earlier unveiling of AI performer Tilly Norwood kept the issue in focus.