On a night full of various cinematic triumphs, Hollywood stood still as Adrien Brody’s name echoed through the microphone at the Golden Globe Awards, the 82nd recipient of the show’s Best Actor, for his remarkable performance as the fictional Hungarian architect László Toth in The Brutalist. However, Brody’s pride was short-lived, as the actor was immediately hit with backlash due to the film’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) to better his Hungarian accent. This controversy does not only raise questions about whether Brody’s award was justified, but it also brings light to a new discussion: is the use of AI in filmmaking ethical?
An epic period drama film, The Brutalist follows Jewish architect László Toth as he uses his vision to popularize the new brutalist style in America after escaping post-World War II Hungary. This type of character is not new to Adrien Brody; in 2002, the actor took on the lead role in The Pianist as Władysław Szpilman, a Jewish pianist hiding among the ruins of Warsaw during World War II. Similar to The Brutalist, The Pianist highlights Szpilman’s passion for playing the piano and how he contributed to the musical industry following the war. This role as Szpilman made Brody a favorite in Hollywood, earning him the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 2003. Fans are furious that an actor of his caliber would allow the use of AI in The Brutalist to enhance his acting.
But The Brutalist isn’t the only high profile film that used AI in its production. For years, producers have been employing the technology in numerous ways, small or large. Examples of successful films that used AI include Blade Runner (1982), Her (2013), The Terminator (1984), and The Matrix (1999). This year alone, three additional Academy Award-nominated films such as Dune: Part 2, A Complete Unknown, and Emilia Pérez have used AI.
“AI has already been a tool I’ve used before to help me in my filmmaking process,” said NVOT senior Timothy Lee. Lee, who will be attending Boston College this fall as a film major, spends a majority of his free time crafting original short films. “It’s extremely convenient for script editing, story development, and world design.”
Other times, the use of AI can come with a cost. “Fabricating somebody’s performance, or eliminating a writer from the process, because you’re gonna feed it into the algorithm, that stuff, to me, is terrifying,” said Film Studies teacher John Housley, who graduated from New York University with a degree in film. Yet, even some of these problems can be viewed as new opportunities to advance the film industry and create new innovations. “I’m old enough to remember when animation was switching over from computers, and everyone was like, ‘you’re gonna put all of these people out of work.’ And guess what? All those people lost their jobs, but others learned a new technology, and that’s just the way the media changes.”
In our modern age, it is so easy to become frightened by the sudden surge of new technology into our everyday lives. I know I myself can even be a little pessimistic whenever I see news like this, scared of what the future of technology holds. However, we should remind ourselves that whether we like it or not, the involvement of AI in the future is essentially inevitable. In order to make the most of these new technologies, we should instead look at these new innovations with an open mind, optimistic of the benefits that will be provided yet still informed on its dangers if we do not regulate it.
This Sunday, March 2, Hollywood will stand still once again as the recipient for the 97th Academy Award for Best Actor is announced. But no matter the outcome of the award, no technology can never replace the genuine artistic passion of real human actors. “While I feel that it’s okay to express an appreciation and acknowledgement of AI’s capabilities in film, I don’t think the content itself deserves praise,” said Lee. “At that point, it’s the matter of praising whoever generated a prompt for the AI, [though AI] does not reflect the true creativity and labor of man-made film.”