“Shazam!” star Zachary Levi feels a biblical disaster is looming, thanks artificial intelligence.
On “The George Janko Show” podcast, Levi compared AI to the great flood of Genesis, saying, “I don’t think the flood is water. Honestly, I think the flood is AI.”
He continued, “We can talk all day and think about how to save the industry from itself in the way it treats people, or doesn’t create great content or whatever. Guys, honestly like, t-minus two years from now, good luck in finding any work, because the studios will have the technology … it’s basically already here.”
Levi gave an example of how audiences can generate their own movies thanks to AI technology.
Zachary Levi compared the future of artificial intelligence to the great biblical flood. (Wiktor Szymanowicz/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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“Imagine if you will, not only is every studio going to own this technology, but then they’re going to go and say, ‘Hey, as part of your subscription to HBO Max, you can pay an extra ten bucks and you can use the creator sandbox, and you can make your own movies and you can type in anything that’s a Warner Brothers property, so it could be Shazam and Batman and Neo from ‘The Matrix,’ and you can type in all these characters and you want them to go treasure hunting on Mars and I want you to feel as in Stephen Spielberg’s film, go.’ And then that movie will be made, which will look indistinguishable from what people have made, it will actually look amazing and it will be fully animated, but that’s where we’re going to be.”
“Tangled” star mentioned that he’s working on his own studio to stay ahead of the curve, saying, “Right now, the studio that I’m trying to build is very much like the ark that God said to Noah, ‘You’ve got to go build this thing, because the flood is coming.'”
When asked by host George Janko why he wants to continue working in entertainment if AI poses such a threat, Levi focused on the strength of the human element.
“There should always be, hopefully always will be, a niche, at least a niche part of the entertainment industry where people say, ‘I still want to support people making art. Art made by people.'”
Levi predicted that AI tools will soon be available that will allow people to create their own movies with a few prompts. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
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He acknowledged that it will become increasingly difficult to sell as AI advances.
“No matter how good AI-rendered art gets, it’s going to get very, very, very, very good, and it’s going to be cheap. Most people think, ‘Yeah, but I’ll never want a computer-generated movie.’ If we’re super-altruistic, obviously, but if a human-made movie still costs you twenty dollars, but for two dollars you can make a movie where, by the way, you can scan your own face and your own voice and you become Superman or, better yet, your kid becomes Superman, and now you can shut them up for the next few hours for two bucks and watch yourself as Superman in a movie, you’ll absolutely pay for that movie.”
“I don’t think the flood is water. Honestly, I think the flood is AI.”
The “Chuck” star also noted that he faces new competition from past actors whose characters may be rejected by their families. He explained a hypothetical situation in which Gene Kelly’s descendants could sell the rights to the star’s image. “And then all of a sudden we’ll be able to watch Gene Kelly movies again. How crazy! And again, I don’t want to endorse it, but are you kidding me?!… Like new” Singing in the Rain sequel? I want to watch it, take my money!”
Levi’s example is not far away, because there have already been attempts to make a film with AI-resurrected James Dean, although none have been completed and published to date.
Levi said that actors will soon be serious competition to long-dead celebrities thanks to artificial intelligence. (Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)
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Entertainment, of course, is not the only industry that will see the impact of artificial intelligence Levi urged people to remain vigilant.
“I don’t want to be a doomsday harbinger, but I can’t stress this enough, please… wake up to AI. Please wake up to it. It’s not, ‘Oh, that’s fun,’ or some passing fad or whatever. It’s going to replace so many jobs, and it’s going to happen a lot faster than you think it’s going to happen,” he said.
“There should always be, hopefully always will be, a niche, at least a niche part of the entertainment industry where people say, ‘I still want to support people who make art.’
The 44-year-old continued, saying: “In the grand scheme of things, in terms of technology and progress, I’m a firm believer that you can’t stop it, you can only hope to lead it. So, we’re not going to stop this flood. We can only build levees and dams and things to make sure we run it in the best possible way. There will still be casualties there will be a lot of people who will be hurt in the process, unfortunately, but I think at the end of the day we’re moving into something that’s going to be a whole new world, legitimately .”
“Shazam!” Star thinks AI will replace many jobs, but the hope is that it will open up people to focus on “creation and discovery.” (Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
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“Ultimately, and that’s part of the reason why I want to build, why I feel like I need to build a campus or multiple campuses if I can multiple them, is because I think really, as people, we want to focus on just, there are two areas of vocation that they no longer mean anything, moving into the future, which is creation and discovery.”
He added that AI will continue to be a tool uses in creation and discovery, but those two things are what “stimulate the human heart, mind and soul, and I think that as long as we really keep a lot of room for people’s work, because work is not only a matter of creation. Work is a purpose. How many people die only a few years after they retire, and why they literally don’t live, and we already sit a lot, superseding again, and now they have no purpose and die.”
Levi believes that artificial intelligence will be the tool that will help people continue to create and discover, and allow people to continue to have purpose. (Jason Mendez/Getty Images)
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“I think it’s important, we have to have a purpose as we go into this new world, but I don’t know. I don’t know how it’s going to be for everybody else in every other industry. And I don’t know. I can certainly guess what’s going to happen in entertainment, and my guess is that people, not just studios, but ordinary human beings, will have access, through various studios, to not only make their own movies, but also TV shows, video games.”
