Robert Brown|Sean Penn goes after studio execs' 'daughter' in bizarre comments over AI debate

Sean Penn is Robert Brownamong the growing list of actors expressing concern over the use of artificial intelligence.

The actor is particularly concerned with the idea of studios using the likeness and voices of SAG-AFTRA actors in future production, an ongoing discussion between the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents the major Hollywood studios.

Penn proposed an arbitrary tradeoff for the use of his likeness in an interview with Variety published Wednesday. "So you want my scans and voice data and all that. OK, here’s what I think is fair: I want your daughter’s, because I want to create a virtual replica of her and invite my friends over to do whatever we want in a virtual party right now," he said. "Would you please look at the camera and tell me you think that’s cool?"

The actor added that studio's suggestions for AI represents "a lack of morality."

Penn previously addressed the ongoing writers strike in a press conference at Cannes Film Festival in May for his film "Black Flies." Asked about the strike, Penn said "the industry has been upending the writers and actors and directors for a very long time."

"There's a lot of new concepts being tossed about including the use of AI. It strikes me as a human obscenity for there to be pushback on that from the producers," said Penn, a veteran writer-director in addition to being an actor.

"The first thing we should do in these conversations is change the Producers Guild and title them how they behave, which is the Bankers Guild," added Penn. "It's difficult for so many writers and so many people industry-wide to not be able to work at this time. I guess it's going to soul-search itself and see what side toughs it out."

SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America, unions representing American actors and screenwriters, are both on strike (the first time both have done so at once since 1960). A key issue holding up negotiations with the major Hollywood studios is the use and regulation of AI. The unions worry that text generators like ChatGPT could write screenplays and actors’ images could be used to create characters without any humans involved. 

At SAG-AFTRA's press conference announcing the strike, the union’s chief negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, said the AMPTP wanted the right to scan the images of background actors (also called extras) and use their likenesses in perpetuity in any project they want, for one day’s pay. The AMPTP vehemently disputes that claim, saying its most recent proposal only “permits a company to use the digital replica of a background actor in the motion picture for which the background actor is employed.” 

SAG-AFTRA is worried about AI,but can it really replace actors? It already has.

SAG-AFTRA claims the AMPTP’s plans leave “principal performers and background actors vulnerable to having most of their work replaced by digital replicas,” while the AMPTP says it wants to establish provisions that “require informed consent and fair compensation.” The WGA, meanwhile, wants a new contract to say that “AI can’t write or rewrite literary material (and) can’t be used as source material,” nor can the writers' work be used to train AI. The AMPTP response to the WGA says the topic of AI needs “a lot more discussion.”

Many people in Hollywood see this as an existential threat. “If big corporations think that they can put human beings out of work and replace them with artificial intelligence, it's dangerous,” Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA, told USA TODAY. “And it's without thinking or conscience. Or caring. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.”

Contributing: Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY; Jake Coyle, The Associated Press

Sean Penn backs Hollywood writersat Cannes, calls the use of AI a 'human obscenity'