The latest film discourse sees Hollywood star Gal Gadot facing extreme backlash and ridicule online after joining the concerning long line of film figures supporting the use of AI in filmmaking, having defended the use of Artificial Intelligence in an upcoming film titled Bitcoin, by director Doug Liman. Casey Affleck, Pete Davidson, and Isla Fisher are also credited on the biographical thriller, written by Nick Shenk, centring on a man’s mission to prove he created the cryptocurrency.
Following reports that Liman’s upcoming film utilised AI to create the film’s sets and lighting, Gadot has spoken out against criticism, affirming the use was kept minimal and away from any ’emotional’ performances.
“This was the longest contract I have ever worked on. It was six months from my lawyers to go through every scenario we could think about as far as the AI component of it,” Gadot shared. “I did not want AI to have anything to do with my performance. We had to protect that, to such an extent that SAG called my lawyers to ask for pointers to update the SAG contract to protect other actors. As far as the performances, it’s all me.”
The DC star affirmed that even though she is “…afraid of AI,” she refuses to “be afraid and look away,” as the star instead assures she is just “playing with it and learning it and trying to educate [herself]. Her stance also includes an attempted metaphor of “The train has left the station. You’re going to work with it or be out of the game completely.”
“I am trying to make the best of it and protect what I can protect,” she concluded. “The AI component in this movie is for sets and the lighting. We had a broad crew and a lot of people were working on this movie.”
Gadot also addressed her experience on the film as “a pure art form of creating a movie.”
This defence of another story of AI being used to replace the jobs of human film artists joins previous examples led by prolific film stars and makers, including Brad Pitt and Eli Roth.
Social media sites such as X have not taken well to the news or the star’s defence of it, with one user writing, “It’s funny how whenever famous people defend working with AI, they always sound like the Borg. It’s never an enthusiastic endoresement, its always ‘we cannot defeat it, we must submit to it.’”
Another user called out a potential hypocrisy and caste system against film stars and those who work behind the scenes, stating “So make sure actors are safe but forget every set worker and VFX worker and everything else, huh?” before scathing the statement as “idiotic” and asking Gadot, “You’re the last big expense in the list, haven’t you noticed?”
“Inevitability arguments are all any of these guys have. They can’t just say ‘it saves money for producers and undercuts the labor power of IATSE‘”, another user posted. “It’s always agency-free ‘the train is coming down the tracks’ teleological mysticism. But it’s you, YOU’RE the one driving the train.”
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