The actor lauded OpenAI’s Sora program for its ability to replace stunt people, screenwriters and CGI departments.
Despite what you may think, this isn’t a bit from “Punk’d.”
Ashton Kutcher is receiving backlash on X, formerly Twitter, for his excitement over how artificial intelligence could potentially replace employees in the entertainment industry.
The “That ’70s Show” venture capital firm launched a $243 million fund in 2023 to invest in artificial intelligence start-ups. And recently, the actor spoke about “playing around” with a beta version of OpenAI’s video generation program, Sora, at an event in Los Angeles with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Variety reports.
“It’s pretty amazing,” Kutcher said. “You can generate any footage that you want. You can create good 10, 15-second videos that look very real. It still makes mistakes. It still doesn’t quite understand physics. … But if you look at the generation of this that existed one year ago as compared to Sora, it’s leaps and bounds.”
Some footage made with Sora could “easily” be used in TV and film productions, he said, potentially helping studios cut costs.
“Why would you go out and shoot an establishing shot of a house in a television show when you could just create the establishing shot for $100? To go out and shoot it would cost you thousands of dollars,” Kutcher said. “Action scenes of me jumping off of this building, you don’t have to have a stunt person go do it, you could just go do it [with AI].”
Kutcher added that video-generating platforms like Sora and text generators like ChatGPT could potentially allow audiences to “render a whole movie” on their own at home.
“You’ll just come up with an idea for a movie, then it will write the script, then you’ll input the script into the video generator and it will generate the movie,” he said.
He continued: “What’s going to happen is there is going to be more content than there are eyeballs on the planet to consume it. So any one piece of content is only going to be as valuable as you can get people to consume it. And so, thus the catalyzing ‘water cooler’ version of something being good — the bar is going to have to go way up, because why are you going to watch my movie when you could just watch your own movie?”
Not everyone in the entertainment industry is as enthusiastic about AI seeping into the entertainment industry as Kutcher.
Tyler Perry told The Hollywood Reporter in February that after seeing Sora’s “mind-blowing” capabilities, he felt concern over how the tech could potentially ruin some people in the industry’s livelihoods.
“There’s got to be some sort of regulations in order to protect us,” he told the entertainment magazine. “If not, I just don’t see how we survive.”
Perry added: “I just hope that as people are embracing this technology and as companies are moving to reduce costs and save the bottom line, that there’ll be some sort of thought and some sort of compassion for humanity and the people that have worked in this industry and built careers and lives.”
And it seems a lot of people on X share the same concerns as Perry — albeit expressed in snarkier ways.
[Guy who has never been in a good movie in his entire 25 year career] soon everyone can use AI to make good movies https://t.co/ZAdpsh1IlM
— Adam Johnson (@adamjohnsonCHI) June 6, 2024
Lucky for Ashton the quality of his acting will not be affected https://t.co/LlVD2vTAWq
— caitie delaney (@caitiedelaney) June 6, 2024
“You’ll come up with an idea for a movie. Then *It* will write the script for the movie. Then you’ll put the script into the video generator and it will make the movie” this sounds like a complete nightmare. Absolutely removing all humanity from art and filmmaking. https://t.co/SMcgaFrt76
— Arthouse Shawn Levy (@firagawalkwthme) June 5, 2024
“why would you go out and shoot an establishing shot when you can just create it” is a real line this fucking idiot says https://t.co/8wIKBQsVtM
— Porky the Litter Eater (@Boringstein) June 5, 2024
Ashton Kutcher seems pretty excited about the prospect of putting countless people out of work by stealing and devaluing their art, but the part I can’t get over is how impressed he is that someone spent a billion dollars to invent an inferior version of stock footage. https://t.co/NrFcyBtisH
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) June 5, 2024
After working an 8 hour shift at a shitty ass job, the last thing people want to do is spend 1 hour setting AI prompts so they can watch a shitty movie. https://t.co/PVru9RIbVG
— Balance510 (@Balance510) June 6, 2024
Hey does anyone remember what the name of that startup Ashton Kutcher backed was?https://t.co/GIJD8vPqtu https://t.co/eQADCjPQ5N pic.twitter.com/0Lpm9bGpcB
— Ed Zitron (@edzitron) June 6, 2024
Ashton Kutcher says you’ll soon be able to “render a whole movie” using AI.
“You’ll just come up with an idea for a movie, then it will write the script, then you’ll input the script into the video generator and it will generate the movie.” https://t.co/nLsO4xPPMD
— Variety (@Variety) June 6, 2024
Imagine being Ashton Kutcher stepping onto a film set now, after coming out and advocating for all those crew people to lose their jobs and fucking starve.
Gutsy choice, bud. https://t.co/jb9Jsl3yxM
— @jfiliatrault.bsky.social (@jfiliatrault) June 6, 2024
Greed will always come first. Just because you can save money it should only be used at a minimum cost of human jobs. As consumers and filmmakers we must reject this garbage.
— Damon Gonzalez (@TheyCallMeDaymz) June 6, 2024
seeing this after ashton kutcher was like “yeah making AI movies is awesome” really hammers home just how bleak this shit is. generative AI isnt good for art or industries. it’s good for the people who have invested in the success of generative AI companies https://t.co/4ExoaVaMQQ
— zach silberberg (@zachsilberberg) June 6, 2024
Ashton Kutcher gotta calm the fuck down. he’s always up to something nobody wants him to do https://t.co/TZMGn4gwlV
— Skyler Higley (@skyler_higley) June 6, 2024
The thing about Ashton Kutcher is in the early 2000’s he’s was seen as a huge Hollywood heartthrob but when you go back and watch his work now you’re just like why is this man yelling https://t.co/PoJLQyMrCl
— big honkin caboose (@itsmegangraves) June 6, 2024
