Actor Matthew McConaughey warned actors that AI has and will become a major force in the entertainment world, advising them to own their likeness as much as possible to combat copyright.
“It’s coming. It’s already here,” McConaughey said during a CNN town hall discussion at the University of Texas at Austin.
“Don’t deny it. It’s not going to be enough to sit on the sidelines and make the moral plea that, ‘No, this is wrong.’ It’s not going to last. There’s too much money to be made, and it’s too productive,” McConaughey said.
“So I say: Own yourself. Voice, likeness, et cetera. Trademark it. Whatever you gotta do, so when it comes, no one can steal you,” he added.
As to whether or not AI will become its own category or an infiltrator, the actor warned that it will probably be both.
“It’s damn sure going to infiltrate our category,” McConaughey said.. “Does it become another category? Will we be, in five years, having the best AI film? The best AI actor?”
“It’s going to get so good we’re not going to know the difference. That’s one of the big questions right now: the question of reality,” McConaughey he continued. “It’s more hazy than ever — in a very exciting way, I think, but also a scary way. Prep for it. Own your own lane, so you at least have agency when it starts to trespass.”
Last week, a clip went viral from the video generator Seedance 2.0 that featured movie titans Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in a photorealistic fight sequence, which prompted a fiery statement from the Motion Picture Association, per Variety.
“By launching a service that operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement, ByteDance is disregarding well-established copyright law that protects the rights of creators and underpins millions of American jobs. ByteDance should immediately cease its infringing activity,” read the statement.