Americans Don’t Want to Watch AI-Generated TV and Movies, Poll Finds
A survey has revealed that the majority of Americans don’t want to watch AI-generated movies with deepfake actors.
The poll conducted by Yahoo Entertainment and YouGov found that 61 percent of the 1,665 U.S. adults surveyed say it is a “bad idea” to include digital replicas of actors generated by AI in movies and TV shows.
When asked if Hollywood should allow movie and television scripts to be generated by artificial intelligence (AI) instead of human writers, a majority of 63 percent responded that it is also a “bad idea.”
Actors and Writers Strike
The poll was prompted by the ongoing double strike by the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America with artificial intelligence being cited as a key concern for both groups.
The actors particularly fear being replaced by deepfakes. Recent examples such as a young AI Harrison Ford in the new Indiana Jones movie has prompted the guild’s president Fran Drescher to describe AI as a “poison” that needs “barricades around it.”
55 percent of respondents to the Yahoo/YouGov poll support the actors’ and writers’ strike as they argue with major studios, cable networks, and streaming services.
The poll is a boon for those on the picket line, particularly the writers who have been on strike for over 100 days.
However, as Ben Gleib points out on The Young Turks network, the poll means that almost 40 percent of respondents have no problem with actors being replaced by AI robot actors or with scripts being spat out of algorithms rather than the mind of a human.
“I’m a member of SAG, I’ve been out on the picket lines. These are human beings fighting for a living wage, fighting for working conditions that can possibly support a family, fighting for the ability to pay our bills with the art that we create that entertains the world and a huge percentage of people are like ‘whatever, if computers take it it’s fine,” says Gleib.
“Trust me, you’re not going to like computer actors just trust me on that.”
Variety reports that there is “no sign of a speedy resoloution” after public comments between the two sides led to nothing.
Image credits:Feature photo licensed via Fabebk/Creative Commons.
