For more from James Cameron, check out Part 1 of our Big Interview where he broke down a famous scene from Titanic. Stay tuned later this week when the writer/director dives into Avatar: Fire and Ash.
James Cameron has thoughts on AI. The Terminator and Avatar filmmaker has spoken extensively about what he perceives as the dangers of artificial intelligence, particularly as it relates to weapons systems and getting into what he calls a “nuclear arms race” with AI. But Cameron says there’s another place he would prefer the technology didn’t disrupt, something he calls the “sacred creative act.”
Speaking with IGN ahead of the theatrical re-release of Avatar: The Way of Water, Cameron says that, while there’s a place for artificial intelligence in filmmaking, he has no desire to remove human beings from the writing and acting processes.
“I don’t want an AI model to write my scripts,” Cameron says. “Any good screenwriter has a particular lens on the world, a unique lived experience, and that’s what they’re there to express. That’s what directors do. That’s what actors do.
“I think Gen AI does offer a lot of potentialities and a lot of threats to our creative purpose in life. I think a lot of things are going to change over the next few years. I don’t think what’s going to ultimately change for me is storytelling with actors.”
Cameron’s body of work includes groundbreaking visual effects and performance-capture techniques which, while visually dazzling, often lead his films to be some of the most expensive movies ever made. He says that if AI is to have a place in moviemaking, he sees potential in using it to bring down the cost of blockbusters.
“We’ve managed to (make) these gorgeous Avatar movies with zero Gen AI,” Cameron says. “(But) Avatar films are quite expensive. If we could use Generative AI to bring costs down in VFX, then more films like Avatar (could be made). More fantastic films, science fiction films, films that use a lot of VFX, maybe even historical dramas that need VFX to create a different world than the one we live in right now.
“Right now everybody’s kind of terrified to greenlight big expensive films, and a big part of that expense is visual effects. Is that a potential solution? I’m going to explore that. But what I will never do is replace what I think of as the Sacred Creative Act, which is writing, creating characters conceptually, working with actors to bring those characters to life, then working with artists to put them in a world. For me, that must never change.”
Cameron’s comments come at a particularly relevant time for Hollywood, as filmmakers and studios grapple with the future of AI performances. Recently an AI-generated “actress” named Tilly Norwood was revealed at the Zurich Film Festival. Norwood was created by Eline Van der Velden, the Dutch founder of AI company Particle 6 Productions, and has since sparked the ire of SAG-AFTRA. Cameron says that while Gen AI presents both unique challenges and opportunities, he’s not in the business of trying to predict the future.
When asked how he’s preparing for Avatar 4 and 5, which are rumored to partially take place on Earth, he says he’s not forecasting what the planet will look like centuries into the future.
“I think the Avatar movies take you to another place and another world, a world that’s fantastic and aspirational and beautiful,” Cameron says. “So it’s a cautionary tale, but one that offers guidance, which is to reconnect with each other, with nature, (and) put things in balance in this kind of runaway freight train of a society that we live in. These films are about the darkness and the light that exists within us.
“We’re on the cusp of an AI revolution right now. Climate change is actually coming to a head. I don’t want to sound like a downer, but we’ve got to come to grips with the next decade. 200 years from now, I don’t think anybody can predict. We could have a thriving civilization. It could be nothing but cockroaches and tumbleweeds.”
