Runway's Co-CEO Says AI Could Eventually Replace Human Actors: 'It's Already Happening in a Way'
During a fireside chat called 'Every Pixel Will Be Generated' at Turin's View Conference, an audience member asked Cristóbal Valenzuela, co-CEO of the generative AI startup Runway, whether AI could eventually replace human actors. He said it's 'already happening in a way,' and framed AI as a new medium of expression and storytelling.
His fellow speaker, Nvidia's Richard Kerris, was somewhat more attached to existing arrangements. Kerris stressed that filmmaking still requires an understanding of character, composition and story — there is no 'make movie button.'
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
The interesting objection isn't 'AI can't make movies.' Nvidia's Richard Kerris recalled a director's argument that something narrower matters: the spontaneity between a director and an actor — Marlon Brando improvising with a cat on the set of 'The Godfather' — could never be prompted.
Valenzuela conceded the present without conceding the argument: 'Not now, but I think models are going to get probably to a point where you can probably direct them in a very similar way.' Two 'probably's in one sentence is a timeline, not a demonstration.
Whether or not actors ever get replaced, the bet underneath the panel isn't about performance. The talks pointed to a worldview in which the cost of generating moving images approaches zero and the traditional structures of production are fundamentally reshaped.