James Cameron says AI-produced scripts are regurgitated 'word salad' and are unlikely to replace human writers
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- "Titanic" and "Avatar" director James Cameron doesn't think AI will replace human writers.
- AI-produced 'word salad' content isn't going to move audiences, he said in an interview with CTV News.
- He said he'd reassess his view if an AI wins an Oscar for Best Screenplay.
"Titanic" and "Avatar" director James Cameron has made it clear he doesn't see artificial intelligence taking over scriptwriting anytime soon.
In a Tuesday interview with Canada's CTV News, Cameron said: "I just don't personally believe that a disembodied mind that's just regurgitating what other embodied minds have said — about the life that they've had, about love, about lying, about fear, about mortality — and just put it all together into a word salad and then regurgitate it. I don't believe that that's something that's going to move an audience."
Cameron said he "certainly" wasn't interested in AI writing his scripts, but he could be forced to reassess his stance in the future.
"Let's wait 20 years, and if an AI wins an Oscar for Best Screenplay, I think we've got to take them seriously," he said.
Prominent AI researchers Timnit Gebru and Emily M Bender have echoed Cameron's concerns — they have long argued that AI systems like ChatGPT and Google Bard lack the capacity to comprehend the meaning or significance of the words they process, no matter how convincing their language is.
Cameron's comments spotlight the mounting backlash against AI's role in the creative arts field.
The Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild are currently on strike for the first time since 1960. A significant factor in their protest is the fear of being replaced by AI, Insider previously reported.
The strike began in May when over 11,000 film and TV screenwriters walked out after the Writers Guild of America failed to reach an agreement on their labor contracts. Actors — including the cast of "Oppenheimer" who walked out of their film's premiere — joined the strike last week.
Many striking writers told TechCrunch in May that writing is an inherently human enterprise that AI cannot replace.
Even so, not everyone thinks AI seeping into the creative field is a bad thing.
Richard Walter, the former chairman of UCLA's screenwriting program, told Insider writers should not fear AI. He compared the emergence of ChatGPT to other technologies that have simplified the writing process — like Microsoft Word.
To gauge the reaction to an AI-generated script, Insider shared a ChatGPT-written script for the show "Succession." The response from screenwriters, however, was underwhelming.