Nicolas Cage Says He Is Terrified of AI’s Capabilities

Nicolas Cage at Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, Calif., on May 31, 2024. Leon Bennett/Getty Images for NEON

Movie actor Nicolas Cage is the latest celebrity to express his concerns with artificial intelligence (AI) technology, saying he is terrified of its capabilities.

During an interview with “The New Yorker” while promoting his new horror film “Longlegs,” the 60-year-old had to cut his conversation short as he was scheduled for a “scan.”

“I have to slip out after this to go get a scan done for the show, and then also for the movie I’m doing after the show. Two scans in one day!” he said.

The series of body scans are used to digitize the actor for his upcoming role in the “Spider-Man Noir” live-action series, something he hopes will not come back to haunt him.

“They have to put me in a computer and match my eye color and change—I don’t know,” he said in trying to explain the concept.

“They’re just going to steal my body and do whatever they want with it via digital AI... I hope not. AI, I’m terrified of that. I’ve been very vocal about it.”

Mr. Cage questioned where the process leaves him and other actors, specifically the unknowns for the future and after his death.

“It makes me wonder, where will the truth of the artists end up? Is it going to be replaced? Is it going to be transmogrified? Where’s the heartbeat going to be? I mean, what are you going to do with my body and my face when I’m dead? I don’t want you to do anything with it!”

This isn’t the first time he’s spoken out against technology. In the past, the Oscar winner said he continues to have conversations regarding signing away life rights when taking on projects.

“I’ve tried to be very careful with that. It’s something that I’ve asked my team about, and there really was no reference point. It’s still something, as we know, that’s still being sorted through, but it scares the hell out of me. It really does,” said Mr. Cage in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press.

He pointed to the late James Dean as an example, following reports an AI version of the actor was set to appear in a film titled “Back to Eden.”

“Someone owns the rights to James Dean right now. They could put him in a Vietnam movie, which is what they’re trying to do.”

Mr. Dean, who died in a car accident in 1955, was set to walk, talk, and interact on screen with other actors in the film through a digital clone created by AI. Ultimately, plans for the movie fell through.

Despite this, Mr. Cage called the method “inhumane”, adding entertainers in Hollywood aren’t the only ones who will suffer from the technology noting jobs will be lost in the process.

“To me, it’s inhumane, OK. It’s inhumane. It doesn’t get any more inhumane than AI. People are going to lose jobs. And I’m sure he, from the beyond, would not be happy about it, you know?” he said.

The AI use of celebrities’ likenesses after death is a topic that continues to be discussed throughout Hollywood and has made its way to a congressional level.

Last year, Senators Chris Coons, Marsha Blackburn, Amy Klobuchar, and Thom Tillis drafted a bipartisan piece of legislation dubbed the “Nurture Originals, Foster Art and Keep Entertainment Safe” (NO FAKES) Act that would allow people, companies, and platforms to be sued for producing or hosting so-called “digital replicas.”

‘NO FAKES’ was created with the intent of protecting actors, singers, and others from having AI programs generate their likenesses and voices without their informed written consent.

Currently, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property continues to hold meetings and obtain feedback in hopes of moving the bill forward.