Since the 1980s, Director James Cameron has pushed the boundaries of visual effects in his successful films, starting with The destroyer and Avatar Privileges for The Abyss and TitanicThe innovations that made these films possible have also made him a beloved, acclaimed and immensely wealthy artist. But his latest technological leap has upset many fans: This week, Cameron officially joined the board of directors of the artificial intelligence company Stability AI, which created and runs the Stable Diffusion model that turns text into images.
“I’ve spent my career researching emerging technologies that push the boundaries of what’s possible, all in the service of telling incredible stories,” Cameron said in a statement. “I’ve been at the forefront of CGI for over three decades, and I’ve stayed on the cutting edge ever since. Now, the intersection of generative AI and CGI image generation is the next wave. The convergence of these two very different engines of creativity will open up new ways for artists to tell stories in ways we never imagined. Stability AI is poised to lead this transformation.”
Movie fans were quick to express their disappointment at the legendary director’s latest foray into the future. “James Cameron is one of the most powerful filmmakers on the planet,” wrote one popular YouTube commentator on X (formerly Twitter), explaining that “the director’s support for AI is so disappointing for the future of cinema because the studios are already listening and following him.” Actor and film critic Amy Potter tweeted: “I keep thinking about how [Cameron] He cut his teeth to make models and other practical effects for [director/producer] Roger Corman and how this kind of human creativity is exactly what these guys are completely undervaluing and want to replace with trash.” Another X user joked, “At the end of the day, James Cameron is a rich, liberal, 70-year-old white guy who is friends with Bill Gates, so [to be quite honest] “I'm not surprised.”
Meanwhile, others have defended Cameron based on some of his comments last year about AI, in which he suggested that such models cannot understand art the way humans do, and insisted that technology should not “replace us in the wrong way.”
The application of AI in film has been a contentious issue in Hollywood, to say the least, and Cameron appears to be siding with executives over creators. One reason the Writers Guild of America went on strike last year was that studios and streaming platforms rejected writers’ demands for terms that would strictly limit the use of AI in script creation and prohibit training AI models on their original material. The actors’ union SAG-AFTRA later joined the strike in part over concerns from actors that studios were using AI to create digital copies of them. When the strikes ended with negotiated deals, many labor activists felt that the AI barriers that had been agreed upon still weren’t good enough: Studios could train AI on existing scripted material, while actors said they still faced pressure to sign over their image rights to contracts.
Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two new bills aimed at protecting actors from potential harm from artificial intelligence; the state is home not only to the entertainment powerhouse of Los Angeles but also to most of the world’s leading AI companies. The first bill allows actors to get out of contracts with vague language that could allow studios to “clone” their likeness or voice. The second bill bans the cloning of deceased actors without permission from their heirs.
This week, more than 120 prominent creators, including musicians, directors, and producers, signed an open letter urging Newsom to move forward by signing another bill, SB 1047, which has already passed both chambers of the state Legislature. It would impose sweeping regulations on AI companies, requiring them to undergo extensive safety testing before launching new models and have reliable protocols for shutting down models in an emergency. The bill also enacts whistleblower protections for insiders at these companies. Signatories to the Artists for Safe AI letter include Mark Ruffalo, J.J. Abrams, Pedro Pascal, Shonda Rhimes, Jean Smart, Ramy Youssef, Alex Winter, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Mark Hamill, Don Cheadle, and Screen Actors Guild President Fran Drescher.
Cameron clearly sees more promise than problems in mixing AI with other approaches to filmmaking — though The destroyer The films are cautionary tales about killer AIs that have gone out of control. As Prem Akkaraju, CEO of Stability AI, said in his own statement: “This is a huge statement not just for Stability AI, but for the AI industry as a whole. The next frontier in visual media will be shaped by a true fusion of artist and technology, and Stability AI is leading the charge.” Akkaraju was previously CEO of Weta Digital (now Wētā FX), a New Zealand-based visual effects and animation company that worked on Lord of the Rings Triple and Cameron Avatar series.
Cameron joins Stability along with several newly appointed board members, including CEO Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster and former Facebook CEO. In an interview Tuesday on CNBC, he said his personal relationships based on “mutual respect” with Parker and Acarago influenced him to join the company. “We sit at a unique intersection between big tech and AI on the one hand, and the CGI workflow associated with visual effects in film and television,” he said. “This is a unique business space because we all believe that the next big leap forward is finding common ground and a common platform between these two areas.”
It remains unclear whether Cameron will heed the AI skeptics who have made their case a major flashpoint in 21st-century Hollywood. (He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) But the accomplished filmmaker is not one to be cowed by industry consensus, as his many risky, outlandish, and staggeringly expensive film projects have demonstrated. In any case, he has already embraced the technology himself, having experimented for years with AI models at various stages of production on the 2022 film. Avatar: The Way of WaterMany people on social media have also pointed out that this phase of his career was completely expected, given his continued passion for developing the tools of his trade.
As one person tweeted about the news: “I love James Cameron movies but no one should be surprised that he's a team machine.”
