Lisa Kudrow, the star of the popular Friends series, has criticized Tom Hanks’ new film for supporting AI (artificial intelligence) technology.
“What jobs will there be for humans?” former Friends star Lisa Kudrow asked when sharing her views on Tom Hanks’ new film released in November. The 61-year-old comedian criticized director Robert Zemeckis’ film project Here and the technology used to de-age the main actors when she spoke to the host of the Armchair Expert podcast on December 9.
Here is considered a reunion of the director, screenwriter and stars of Forrest Gump (1994). The film travels through generations of a family, starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. Robert Zemeckis previously said that his film would not be successful if the actors in the film were constantly transforming into younger versions of themselves thanks to new technology.
Accordingly, the Metaphysic Live tool of the AI Company Metaphysic was used to de-age the characters in the film without any VFX (visual effects) or other complicated tasks.
The former Friends actor described that the technology used by the film helps the actors “time travel”. The crew filmed the segments and could then watch the footage of them as young people right after.
“What I see here is a validation of AI, and oh my gosh, it’s going to ruin everything. What’s left? Forget actors, especially young actors. They (filmmakers) just get permission and keep changing and remaking with technology,” said Lisa Kudrow. Tom Hanks previously told People that his digital rejuvenation experience was “weird.” The 68-year-old star said it was like a “gimmick” for a new film instead of using makeup like actors have always used. “Because we have super-fast computers filtering at the time of filming, we don’t have to wait in post-production to see ourselves as younger,” he said.
The Oscar-winning actor has previously spoken out against videos that illegally use his artificial intelligence version. The star said that many videos use his name, image and voice to promote drugs and miracle cures. All of them were created fraudulently, through AI without his permission.
