Avatar creator James Cameron has issued strong words on the potential for entire characters to be created with generative AI, saying it’s “horrifying to me.”
Speaking to CBS News, the Avatar: Fire and Ash director described the process of turning real-life actors into digital characters for the Avatar films, citing performance capture as a crucial component.
“For years, there was this sense that, ‘Oh, they’re doing something strange with computers and they’re replacing actors,’ when in fact, once you really drill down and you see what we’re doing, it’s a celebration of the actor-director moment,” he said.
“Now, go to the other end of the spectrum, and you’ve got generative AI, where they can make up a character,” he continued. “They can make up an actor. They can make up a performance from scratch with a text prompt. It’s like, no. That’s horrifying to me. That’s the opposite. That’s exactly what we’re not doing.”
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.
Earlier this year, the Terminator and Titanic director spoke about the dangers of artificial intelligence, particularly as it relates to weapons systems and getting into what he calls a “nuclear arms race” with AI. And in an interview with IGN, Cameron said 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 told IGN in September. “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.”
“We’ve managed to (make) these gorgeous Avatar movies with zero gen AI,” Cameron added. “(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 thoughts on the cost of making Avatar movies flared up again last week, when he said that if Avatar: Fire and Ash doesn’t make enough money to justify Avatar 4 and 5, he’s ready to walk away from the franchise.
The special effects-heavy Avatar films cost a huge amount of money to produce, but they have historically made billions of dollars at the box office. Avatar: Fire and Ash, due out in December, is expected to follow suit — and the pressure is on it to deliver for Disney so director James Cameron can realize his vision and release Avatar 4 and 5 over the next six years.
Avatar 4 is down for release on December 21, 2029, with Avatar 5 due out December 19, 2031. Cameron, now 71, would be close to 80 years old by the time it all wraps up.
Avatar remains the highest-grossing movie of all time (not adjusted for inflation), and has earned a staggering $2.9 billion across several theatrical runs. (Avengers: Endgame overtook Avatar for a brief period, before Avatar then stole its crown back via a fresh re-release.) 2022 sequel Avatar: The Way of Water earned $2.3 billion, meanwhile, cementing it as the third-highest grossing film of all time — just ahead of Cameron’s own Titanic, which floats on $2.2 billion.
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Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
