Make a movie with a dead actor and apply special effects in real time – with the help of artificial intelligence, Hollywood is mastering these tasks as well, as NBC News shows in its report. But the reporter wonders if the new technology could put actors out of work.
Hollywood is changing, thanks to artificial intelligence. Deep Voodoo is a visual effects company that specializes in so-called face-swapping with artificial intelligence.
JULIA BORSTIN, NBC News reporter: What kind of funny face do I get?
For about half an hour, they scanned every facial expression I made to study its movement. And two weeks later, we started testing the algorithm with a stand-in on live TV.
OPERATOR: Well, let’s go!
JULIA BORSTIN: Oh my God, this is so weird! It’s not my hair, but it’s totally my face.
Although Hollywood has a long history with visual effects, Deep Voodoo’s precision and live-action facial features have won the hearts of celebrities like Kendrick Lamar, who uses their technology to “try on” other stars’ faces.
KIT PIZZI, board member, Deep Voodoo: In a traditional visual effects scenario, the overlay comes later, and you can’t see the result until the filming is over.
JULIA BORSTIN: So it turns out that you can see one actor putting on another actor’s mask when they’re filming, rather than waiting until everything is ready to change faces?
KIT PIZZI: Exactly. Julie, you don’t have to go to work anymore.
Deep Voodoo says they work with movie studios to give understudies the facial features of actors and even to bring deceased movie stars to life.
JULIA BORSTIN: How much does your technology compromise people’s jobs?
KIT PIZZI: They allow people to do work faster, better and cheaper. And it’s a tool for creativity, and it should be used by creative people.
But with all this new technology comes new experiences. The Screen Actors Guild has stated that “our goal is to ensure that our members are protected from the unauthorized use of their name, voice and appearance. We intend to extend that protection to the use of artificial intelligence.”
JULIA BORSTIN: In these movie scenes, artificial intelligence is not only used to copy actors’ faces and voices. It’s also being used to create visual effects and computer graphics faster and easier than ever before.
The experts at Wonder Dynamics quickly transformed me into these characters. Their artificial intelligence technology can replace an actor with a computer-generated character in a matter of hours.
JULIA BORSTIN: He moves his arms almost as much as I do when I talk.
Co-founder and actor Ty Sheridan wanted to improve visual effects after using motion-capture sensors while working on Steven Spielberg’s “First Man Standby.
TAY SHERIDAN, co-founder of Wonder Dynamics: We always wanted to tell stories we couldn’t fit. And that helped us create the company.
Together with co-founder Nikola Todorovik, Sheridan hopes to create premium visual effects easier and cheaper. It usually takes weeks to put together a one-minute scene like this.
NICOLA TODOROVIK, co-founder of Wonder Dynamics: With our technology, we hope to turn this into a day or a couple of hours, depending on the scene.
JULIA BORSTIN: So it becomes both much faster and more economical?
NIKOLA TODOROVIK: Exactly. And more affordable. Because all you need is a browser and a camera.
Wonder Dynamics says hundreds of thousands of users have signed up to try their platform. And it’s already being used in film production for Netflix.
JULIA BORSTIN: Will it make actors unnecessary?
TAY SHERIDAN: Well of course not, I won’t be out of a job. I think it will give actors more opportunities to do these kinds of movies.
And if it works, what was fiction could become artificial intelligence reality. Julia Boorstin, NBC News, Los Angeles.