George Clooney Says AI Actors Will Struggle to Be Movie Stars

George Clooney is weighing in on Hollywood’s increasing use of AI and expressing his concern.

“The thing that really rattled Hollywood in general was the Sora 2 stuff. That shook everybody because suddenly the quality was much better and it’s scary,” he told me at the Los Angeles premiere of “Jay Kelly” on Tuesday night at the Egyptian Theater. “But you know, AI is gonna have the same problem that we have in Hollywood, which is making a star is not so easy. You can’t really describe what makes someone a star, and it’s not looks. It’s something unusual and it’s hard to detect. They’ll have the same problems that we have.”

Clooney has seen unauthorized AI versions of himself online. “There’s been some really actually awful ones where they’ve done and said things that I’ve never done and said and put me out there and it’s dangerous,” he said. “It’s dangerous for your family. It’s dangerous. It’s complicated, but the genie is out of the bottle and I’m not quite sure what we’re gonna do.”

Eline Van der Velden, the creator of controversial AI character Tilly Norwood, recently said in a new interview with Variety’s Gene Maddaus that she is already working with studios to provide AI content for movies but predicts full AI feature films will be “next.”

“I’m sure in the coming year, there’ll be plenty of effects that will be made with AI,” she said. “There’ll be some establishing shots, there’ll be some second-unit shots with AI, and then slowly, we’ll progress to a full AI film. And whether people will pay for an AI film or not — I don’t think they’ll know the difference. It’s good storytelling that will be the reason why people will pay for it or not.”

Van der Velden sparked backlash in September when she claimed that talent agencies were clamoring to sign Tilly.

“As a creative, I have really enjoyed creating her,” Van der Velden told Variety. “It’s been just like a writer creating characters. You fall in love with your characters when you’re writing them. It’s a wonderful process. It wasn’t like I just made her in a second, and that was it. You know, it took a long time.”