Filmmaker Steven Spielberg revealed he was concerned about the profound consequences of Artificial Intelligence (AI) taking over art and losing the human element in the process.
The famous director said while he thought AI was a "fantastic," tool to help artists express themselves, it also made him "very nervous" to give "autonomy" to a man-made computer.
Referencing his 2001 film, "AI: Artificial Intelligence," Spielberg described how in the fictional futuristic society, "[t]he humans basically defaulted to their own creations."
He warned there were ethical questions about these technological advances in real-life as well.
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Spielberg brought up the uniqueness of the human soul and how it could not be reproduced by AI.
"I think the soul is unimaginable and ineffable," he explained while on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." "And it cannot be created by any algorithm. It's just something that exists in all of us."
The filmmaker said he was troubled by the idea of the soul being taken away by robot-made art.
"And to lose that because books and movies, and music is being written by machines that we created, and now we're letting them run with? That terrifies me," Spielberg told Colbert.
The director of several science-fiction films joked the advances in AI could lead us into a situation where the robots are in control of us.
"It will be ‘The Twilight Zone’ [episode] ‘To Serve Man’. It'll turn out to be a cookbook---and we’re on the menu," he quipped.
Spielberg said he "love[s]" AI-generated art that is created "when a human person uses the medium of the digital tools to express themselves."
Concerns robots could replace humans in the arts and entertainment industry has been hotly discussed in recent months.
Hollywood and videogame voice actors spoke out against the technology being used to replace their jobs in the industry to tech outlet VICE, after they were asked to sign contracts giving away the rights to their voices for use in generative AI.
