'Let's cross that s*** out': Samuel L Jackson has worried about AI for years
Samuel L. Jackson has been concerned about AI technology keeping him in movies after his death for a long time.
Samuel L. Jackson has been worried about the impact of AI on the film industry for "a long time".
The 74-year-old actor admitted he has clauses in his contracts about using his likeness "in perpetuity" removed before he agrees to sign them because he doesn't want movie studios to keep using his likeness after his death.
He told Rolling Stone magazine: "People just started worrying about that? I asked about that a long time ago. The first time I got scanned for George Lucas [for 'The Phantom Menace'] I was like, 'What’s this for?'
"George and I are good friends so we kind of had a laugh about it because I thought he was doing it because he had all those old guys in Episode I, and if something happened to them, he still wanted to put ‘em in the movie.
"Ever since I’ve been in the Marvel Universe, every time you change costumes in a Marvel movie, they scan you.
"Ever since I did 'Captain Marvel', and they did the Lola project where they de-aged me and everything else, it’s like, 'Well, I guess they can do this anytime they want to do it if they really want to!'
"It could be something to worry about.
"Future actors should do what I always do when I get a contract and it has the words “in perpetuity” and “known and unknown” on it: I cross that s*** out. It’s my way of saying, “No, I do not approve of this.”
The 'Secret Invasion' actor's comments come a few weeks after Tom Hanks also expressed concern about AI using his likeness to keep making movies after he's dead.
Speaking on the 'Adam Buxton Podcast', he said: "I can tell you that there is discussions going on in all of the guilds, all of the agencies, and all of the legal firms in order to come up with the legal ramifications of my face and my voice and everybody else's being our intellectual property.
"What is a bona fide possibility right now is, if I wanted to, I could get together and pitch a series of seven movies that would star me in them in which I would be 32 years old from now until kingdom come.
"Anybody can now recreate themselves at any age they are by way of AI or deep fake technology. I could be hit by a bus tomorrow and that's it, but performances can go on and on and on and on.
"Outside the understanding of AI and deep fake, there'll be nothing to tell you that it's not me and me alone.
"And it's going to have some degree of lifelike quality. That's certainly an artistic challenge but it's also a legal one."
