Tye Sheridan hasn’t kept his interest in AI under wraps at all. He was one of the first in Hollywood to explore the possibilities when he and Nikola Todorovic cofounded AI tech company Wonder Dynamics way back in 2016. At the time, Sheridan, known for his work in sci-fi films like Ready Player One and the X-Men franchise, was telling agents, managers, and anyone else in Hollywood who’d listen that they should educate themselves about AI. “It’s coming. It’s going to be a big part of our industry,” he remembers saying. “And some people would kind of laugh because they thought it sounded so science fiction.”
It was after ChatGPT launched in 2022 that Hollywood (and the rest of society) realized the possibilities. By 2023, Sheridan and Todorovic launched Wonder Studio, an AI tool for animating, lighting, and composing CG characters in a live-action scene. They’ve been intentional about using AI in an additive way, not to replace creative talent like actors. “We spend a lot of time working on staying on the good side of AI,” says Todorovic. “I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t easy to stay on that side because you’re always tempted.”
For Sheridan, it’s the nuance of AI that has been lost in the conversation up until this point. But as more filmmakers openly talk about the specific ways they’re using AI, it’s making a difference. “There’s so many different models, so many different AI solutions—it’s like saying the internet is bad or the internet is good,” he says. “You have all these different tools within the AI ecosystem, some of which are inherently more detrimental to artists and some of which actually really help them out in a lot of ways.”
Like Affleck, Sheridan could be key in turning the tides in this space because he’s also an actor. At this point, some of the greatest resistance to this technology is coming from this group. According to several sources, many actors are still refusing to sign on to AI projects even if they are interested because of the fear of the blowback they would receive from the acting community.
But if the marketing stunt that was Tilly Norwood showed us anything, AI is not at a point where it can replace actors from scratch. But with SAG-AFTRA’s current contract scheduled to expire on June 30, the union will resume talks with the studios this month to negotiate its new contract, and establishing some AI protections is expected to be one of the main points. Darren Aronofsky’s AI company Primordial Soup hired all SAG-AFTRA voice actors for its most recent project, the animated series On This Day…1776. “For us, yes, there’s the ethics of working with SAG actors. There’s also the practicality that you can get a way better performance,” says Dylan Golden, Aronofsky’s longtime producing partner and a founding partner at Primordial Soup. “I’m not sure why at this stage we would want to use AI if we can get a much better performance out of an actor.”
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