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Hi, my name is Devin Gordon and I'm a contributor to the New York Times Magazine.
So maybe you remember last year there was a major strike by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild that completely stopped Hollywood for several months.
And one of the issues at the core of the contract negotiations with the movie studios was the subject of AI.
Guild members were concerned that AI could replace humans at every stage in the creative process.
That studios would soon use AI to write screenplays, direct and edit films, design the special effects, and even read and decide which scripts were greenlit.
Actors, meanwhile, were concerned about copyright ownership over their images.
They wanted to protect their likenesses from exploitation and reproduction and profit without their benefit.
But I also heard another perspective from AI optimists in Hollywood.
They told me that the technology was still widely misunderstood.
So I decided to find out what AI was actually being used for.
Did the anxiety match the reality?
At first it was difficult to find people in the industry who would go on the record in praise of AI because that can be seen as siding with the machines or undermining union solidarity.
But eventually I was able to speak with artists who have already incorporated AI into their work in films you might have already seen.
One use of AI is to make actors look younger or older than they actually are.
For example, in a new movie called Here, AI transformed Tom Hanks face to make him look anywhere from 18 to 80 years old.
This method of facial replacement technology is also being used in stunt work.