‘Ignorant’: Ashton Kutcher slammed for comments about making whole movies with AI

The actor’s comments at a recent Q&A have sparked fierce backlash, with some in Hollywood calling him “shortsighted and self-centered.”

Ashton Kutcher is getting roasted for his comments about making entire films using AI technology.

Speaking to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt at LA’s Berggruen Salon, a forum that invites guests to discuss big ideas, the actor said the possibilities with AI are endless as he listed the benefits of Sora, Open AI’s generative video tool.

“I have a beta version of it and it’s pretty amazing,” Kutcher said, as per Deadline. “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.”

“In fact, there’s footage in it that I would say you could easily use in a major motion picture or a television show.”

Ashton Kutcher made his pro-AI comments at during a think-tank in LA.

The 46-year-old said that cost-cutting is also a major benefit of using AI as it makes filmmaking significantly cheaper.

“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?” he continued.

“To go out and shoot it would cost you thousands of dollars. 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 said that he has played around with the Sora software and was able to generate footage of a desert sandstorm with ease.

“I didn’t have to hire a CGI department to do it,” he shared. “I, in five minutes, rendered a video of an ultra-marathoner running across the desert being chased by a sandstorm. And it looks exactly like that.”

He believes that when coupled with a new processor from US tech giant Nvidia, video-generating platforms like Sora will become even better.

“You’ll be able to render a whole movie,” he said. “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.”

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt appeared with Kutcher on the panel.

“Instead of watching some movie that somebody else came up with, I can just generate and then watch my own movie.”

The backlash was fierce, with many from the entertainment industry taking aim at the actor.

“Cannibalising your own industry because you played Steve Jobs in an inferior movie and think you’re a tech genius now,” tweeted former Rick and Morty writer Caitie Delaney.

“When you take ANY humans off of a collaborative and creative pursuit you literally lose the humanity,” she continued. “A hollow, dumbass, pointless shell. TV will have the same artistic merit as dish soap.”

Kutcher with his wife, actress Mila Kunis. Picture: ANGELA WEISS / AFP

Screenwriter J. Filiatraut sarcastically called Kutcher’s comments “gutsy”, given the film industry is his bread and butter.

“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 f***ing starve,” he tweeted.

Writer and producer Ash Lash agreed: “It’s such an ignorant, shortsighted, selfcentered, short-term cost vs long-term gain mindset. You’re training it to replace YOU. And your kid’s dreams.”

Kutcher and Kunis take their kids to watch a basketball at Crypto.com Arena on May 24. Picture: Harry How/Getty Images

“You could probably make an Ashton Kutcher movie with OpenAI’s Sora, but you couldn’t make a good movie with it,” writer and comedian Sean O’Connor tweeted, while fellow writer wrote Brett Nicholson commented: “I’d rather render a whole different Ashton Kutcher.”

The actor and his wife Mila Kunis have come under fire in the past year for showing their support for convicted rapist Danny Masterson, who in September last year was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for raping two women two decades ago.

The couple worked with Masterson on That ‘70s Show and wrote a glowing letter about him to ask the court for leniency, a move that was panned by many.

They were also accused of using their rarely seen children for a publicity stunt last month when they were photographed together in public as a family for the first time to watch a basketball game in LA.

Originally published as ‘Ignorant’: Ashton Kutcher slammed for comments about making whole movies with AI