Standing up for actors and standing squarely on the neck of generative AI, Baldur's Gate 3 Astarion actor Neil Newbon argues "AI sucks" for a variety of reasons, chief among them its unreliability and inherent soullessness.
Newbon discussed AI in a recent episode of the Radio Times Gaming podcast. The technology came up during a chat about Newbon's Pixel Pack, described on his YouTube channel as "a collective of prolific game actors, uniting for a groundbreaking multi-city photoshoot that honors their contributions while challenging outdated industry perceptions."
Pixel Pack is about championing actors, Newbon reiterates on the podcast, and AI is a big part of that today.
"I spoke to a lot of devs, I know a lot of devs, and they don't want to use AI because it's shit," he says. "It doesn't work very well. It takes a lot of effort to get something that's half-decent. Even with the modern things that I've seen recently, it's like, yeah, OK, great, you can make AI. And what? Where's the joy in it? I'm not interested in that. You can always tell that something's slightly off, it's not right. Even if it comes to a point where you can't tell the difference, so what? Why not make it with people? Why not have more fun?"
Newbon isolates one of the simple, unavoidable issues with generative AI: the viewer's experience is one half of art, and the creator's intent is the other. There is no intent or creator with AI-generated art, so you're unavoidably losing half of what makes art art.
"I'm not interested in seeing that stuff because it's synthetic," Newbon continues. "It's not real. It doesn't have the happy accident possibility and capability that are those great moments in film, TV, theater, games, where nobody can predict, it just happened, it was magical."
He points to an "iconic" scene of Dustin Hoffman, while filming Midnight Cowboy, having a run-in with a taxi but staying in character, creating one of the most memorable moments in the film.
"Most of the famous things in film, TV you can quote are those happy accidents," Newbon says. "So yeah, AI sucks. AI is a tool. It should be used as a tool, not as a replacement for art."
Some game devs and studio heads are clearly quite keen on AI, with Valve co-founder Gabe Newell arguing it will be "a cheat code" for "pretty much every single business" and EA execs already calling generative AI "the very core of our business," but the technology remains controversial. Beyond the issues Newbon calls out – and many devs have skewered AI as a waste of time – there's white-hot discussion around the threat posed to creators, with overinvestment in AI seemingly fueling some of Microsoft's many layoffs.
