‘Wanted’ Director Timur Bekmambetov Explains His $5 Million Plan to Generate AI Method Actors: ‘AI Is Here to Stay. We Have to Train It Responsibly’

A soldier sits in a sterile hospital room, speaking words of hard-earned wisdom as his eyes betray flickers of melancholy and regret. It’s a scene out of a movie, only this is no ordinary actor, delivering a performance to a camera from the comfort of a soundstage. Instead, it’s a collection of pixels that have been assembled through the magic — or, depending upon your perspective, evil alchemy — of AI. And here’s the thing: Unlike most AI creations that look, well, phony, this guy is completely lifelike.

This touching scene has been assembled using patented technology from Timur Bekmambetov, a Kazakh Russian filmmaker best known for the 2008 Angelina Jolie action film “Wanted.” Dubbed Stanislavsky, the program attempts to train AI using the same Method acting techniques that transformed Marlon Brando, James Dean and Robert De Niro into screen titans.

“If a character is staring out a window with a sad look,…