Catherine Zeta-Jones Would Rather Not Know the Actor
Catherine Zeta-Jones wants to see less AI onscreen and more undiscovered human talent. The Oscar winner has commented on actors who have 'given themselves over' to artificial intelligence companies, and she says she prefers not knowing anything about the performers she watches in movies and television. There is a real tension in that pair of preferences, and it is not really a technology story. A synthetic performer has no unknown biography to discover, which is precisely what she says she values — the pleasure of watching someone whose off-screen life you have not already absorbed. An actor who licenses a likeness to an AI company is doing something more mundane and more consequential: selling the recognizability that made them watchable in the first place.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
The phrase she reaches for — actors who have 'given themselves over' to AI companies — points at performers making deals, not at audiences watching synthetic faces. Those are different complaints wearing the same coat.
Actually she is making two demands at once: fewer AI 'actors' onscreen, and more undiscovered human talent. One is about how a performance gets made; the other is about who gets cast in the first place.