If you’ve been online in the last few days, you may have seen a lot of negative comments about Ashton Kutcher.
During recent conversation With former Google CEO Eric Schmidt in Los Angeles, Ashton spoke about the benefits of Sora, OpenAI’s generative text-to-video synthesis tool, and how it could change the industry landscape cinema and television in the years to come.
Ashton – who was once highest paid television actor in Hollywood – discussed how the tool could make film and TV production cheaper by reproducing sequences that today rely on the work of professional crews.
Praising the tool and its potential to simplify filmmaking, Ashton predicted that one day creatives “will be able to render an entire film” using the software.
If you keep up to date with news in the media industry, you’ll know that AI has been a huge topic of discussion in recent years, not only for how it can advance production, but also for how it will reduce work opportunities for creatives.
Notably, Tyler Perry said earlier this year that he wasn’t sure how the film and television industry would “survive” due to how quickly Sora is growing.
So, with all that in mind, it’s not hard to understand why people are incredibly upset that someone like Ashton – who owes much of his success to the work and expertise of members of Crew Below the Line – has advocated so strongly for the use of AI in Hollywood.
Writer Caitie Delaney was among those who denounced Ashton’s comments on X, arguing that cutting jobs for creatives would totally diminish the “buzz” and appeal of television and film.
Others have taken issue with Ashton being a major investor in AIand would therefore benefit from Hollywood’s shift towards technology.
Many people have also pointed out the hypocrisy of it all, pointing out that AI tools like Sora are developed to diminish the value of people – like Ashton himself – who have worked and dream of working in the arts.
Amid the backlash, Ashton appears to have defended his position. Yesterday he written the that he does not “think that AI will replace the film industry or the creative arts”, but that he believes that it would be “catastrophic” to act as if “it did not exist”.
