It's not often that you hear an actor, particularly an actor mostly known for roles in video games, talk positively about generative AI in acting, but a prominent actor appearing in one of the year's biggest releases envisions a world where the tech can improve creative output without displacing jobs.
Talking to GamesRadar+, Jim High – the actor behind Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 big bad Erik – tippy-toes the tightrope between both sides of the generative AI argument: it's evil and antithetical to human creativity, and it's the benevolent and inevitable future of mankind.
"I'm quite cynical about it, in that I think it will change things, and I think it will change things quite rapidly," says High.
Understandable – most of us, particularly those of us in industries that might be vulnerable to AI displacement, are pretty freaked out about the proliferation of generative AI in previously human-dominated fields. But High also wonders if there could be a place for AI in video game acting that doesn't result in people losing their jobs.
"But I'm also quite optimistic in the opportunities that that will bring, like we were talking about the opportunities you can play different characters in different ways with mocap," he adds. "I think that's only going to increase."
Major players like Ubisoft, EA, and Take-Two have been brazenly bullish about the use of AI in video games, publicly throwing their support behind investments in the tech and bigging up its potential. In the world of video game acting, however, High's take is about as hot as the magma core at the center of the Earth. Hell, concerns around AI displacement is the main reason so many actors represented by SAG-AFTRA went on strike for almost a year. Still, although it's clear High shares similar concerns, he ultimately thinks humans will always pull the strings.
"My hope is that that power will come to the creator," he says. "I think they're always – for performances and things like that – you're always going to need a puppeteer of some sort, whether that's inside it, or controlling it with dials, and what have you. So I don't think that creative process will ever go away, I hope. But there's this possibility for some amazing creative stuff to happen, as well as a lot of changes."
