‘This is intellectual property that is being stolen’ Mark Ruffalo addresses reasonable fears actors face due to AI

Mark Ruffalo is often vocal about his opinions on social media, and with the recent surge of AI, the MCU actor has another thing he wants to discuss. It is an odd and uncertain time for many in the creative industry right now, whether that be acting, painting, photography, or writing, seeing as AI is now capable of generating content that is near-indecipherable to media made by humans.

Ruffalo opines that the use of AI needs to be discussed, especially as it doesn’t just create out of thin air. Artificial Intelligence has to have somewhere to draw from and in most, if not all cases, it draws from the work of real artists to copy and recreate without the real artist receiving any credit.

This is already a worry of many in the industry including Ruffalo’s former Endgame director Joe Russo, who has spoken of the perils of the new technology. Writers, particularly those now on strike in the States, face an unknown and uncertain future where AI could potentially play a huge part in journalism and scriptwriting, leaving wages drastically reduced or even lead to a complete loss of jobs.

In the case of actors, AI can actually replicate their faces, voice, and intonation, with the latter two already coming into effect. The actor James Earl Jones has already given permission for his voice to be captured by AI to potentially continue being the voice of Darth Vader well after his death. We know it has been used in Star Wars as well for Deep Fakes, such as in The Mandalorian where we saw a young Luke Skywalker, and in Rogue One where we saw a young Princess Leia.

These were likely done with the original actor’s permission, but how long will it be before they stop asking and just use them regardless? We have already seen the dark side of Deep Fakes in Twitch communities, where sexualized videos have been made and sold using AI-generated faces of famous female streamers, leading to a huge uproar. Though acting is one of the jobs that is less likely to become automated, actors like Ruffalo are right to feel worried.

Many actors are already putting their foot down, with Keanu Reeves having previously told Wired that he has a clause in his contract that bans the studio from Deep Faking him, saying “If you go into deepfake land, it has none of your points of view. That’s scary. It’s going to be interesting to see how humans deal with these technologies.” Some actors have already jumped on board though, with Bruce Willis having given permission for his likeness to be used in an advertisement.

AI isn’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future, and we are already seeing a huge impact in many industries, because at the end of the day, many companies don’t actually care about their artists, they care about their bottom line; if they can do something cheaper, they will. The result of this current writer’s strike will be very telling when it comes to their demands on how AI is used, and will likely set the tone for future decisions. So yes, Ruffalo, you are right to feel worried.