‘Wanted’ director on his new AI platform, Stanislavski, ‘Yes, it will take jobs’

Embed from Getty Images
Timur Bekmambetov is a Kazakh-Russian filmmaker who made the Angelina Jolie action movie Wanted in 2008. What’s he been up to since then? Well, most of the intervening years – and about $5 million – have been spent developing a program to “train” AI “actors” in the art of Method acting. He’s even gone so far as to name the program Stanislavski, after the great Russian theater director and arguably the most consequential acting teacher in the history of the profession. But I guess as far as Bekmambetov is concerned, Stanislavski’s tomes on the art of acting may as well have been titled An Actor Preprograms, Building an Algorithm, and Creating a Code. Variety just interviewed Bekmambetov about his program (it physically pains me to refer to it as “Stanislavski”), and the article starts out waxing rhapsodic about a scene Bekmambetov “directed.” It was a nyet for me and CB and, curiously, the video has since been taken down. If you can stomach it, read on to see how Bekmambetov tries to spin this abomination into something positive:

“If a character is staring out a window with a sad look, I won’t just tell the AI, ‘He’s said,’” Bekmambetov, who is walking me through a demonstration of the tech on Zoom, explains. “In the prompt I’ll use the Stanislavski system and write something like ‘His dog died yesterday, and the sunset is reminding him of what it was like to play with his dog in the park.’”

“It’s not about what you want a character to do; it’s giving them a map for how to get there,” he adds.

But Bekmambetov’s product is about more than just delivering more authentic artificial performances. It helps create entire films and shows. To begin with, producers feed a script into the Stanislavski system and it breaks down the action into a series of suggested shots and sequences that will eventually be reshaped by filmmakers during production. The program also functions as an interface that allows the heads of different departments — from the cinematographer to the production designer to the editor — to interact on one platform, where they can share notes and feedback and also give the AI direction on how to fine-tune a film or show.

Bekmambetov spent roughly $5 million and more than a decade developing the technology and is aiming for a December launch. It arrives as Hollywood is fiercely debating the costs and benefits of AI: Studios and streamers hope it will help them slash budgets and work more efficiently, while actors, writers and other creative talent fear it will lead to fewer and fewer jobs. Bekmambetov acknowledges the disruptive ramifications of AI, but he’s a convert.

“It’s too late — AI is here to stay, so we have to train it responsibly,” Bekmambetov says. “Don’t think of AI as an angel or as the devil. Yes, it will take jobs, but what we need to focus on is how do we direct it and use it properly.”

…But even Bekmambetov is skeptical that AI actors will put flesh-and-blood performers permanently out of work.

“Someone like Angelina Jolie, you can instruct her, but there’s a magic there that can’t be entirely replicated,” he says. “Maybe actors will train their own AI models, which will allow them to work in different ways, but creative people can never be replaced.”

[From Variety via AOL]

With all due respect Mr. Bekmambetov, please f–k all the way off. This article was so infuriating to me that I’m at full blown Tasmanian Devil incredulity. These pro-AI people continuously say the right words – “creative people can never be replaced” – without accounting for how everything else they describe about the technology backs up the opposite argument. But I guess that’s fitting for people championing what is essentially a fancy schmancy tool for shortcutting the unglamorous work of creativity. Sure, Bekmambetov does acknowledge that AI will indeed take jobs away from humans, but the way he says it is so glib. He details how his program is a huge help to him as a director, and then casually says “Yes, it will take jobs” from actors and writers and other artists – but not his job. As for the program, I’d love for someone to explain the difference between that and good old animation. And no, it’s not actually teaching Method acting to AI – and I think Daniel Day-Lewis will back me up on that! When it comes down to it, it sounds like the project he’s spent 10+ years and $5 million developing is basically a glorified digital program for storyboarding. Which AGAIN is a HUMAN craft!!

Photos credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons, Donatella Giagnori/EIDON/Avalon, Getty