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In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, legendary actor Harrison Ford again took the time to praise Troy Baker’s performance as Indiana Jones in MachineGames’ The Great Circle. Ford offered Baker’s performance as a counterpoint to interest in AI-generated digital actors trained on human artists’ past performances.
“You don’t need artificial intelligence to steal my soul. You can already do it for nickels and dimes with good ideas and talent,” Ford said in response to a question about digital likeness rights, alluding to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Troy Baker’s performance. “He did a brilliant job, and it didn’t take AI to do it.”
It’s nice to hear Ford’s continued praise for the game and Baker’s performance, but it feels like there’s a tacit criticism in there as well: “You don’t need AI to steal my soul, you can already steal my soul.” I don’t think the dig was necessarily aimed at Troy Baker or even MachineGames, but rather our culture-wide inability to let characters, fictional settings, and even individual performances go. “There won’t be any need for me. There’s somebody behind me. Doing what I did,” Ford argued, “And that’s the attraction. It’s what’s coming.”
“My plan is to keep working behind that face till I don’t care what happens anymore,” Ford added, seemingly unconcerned whether his estate or descendants receive royalties for any future use of his likeness. “I’m selling that piece by piece while I’m alive. I’ve been compensated. You don’t need to worry about me.”
It’s a philosophical perspective that I appreciate, and Ford seems optimistic that the quality, power, and genuine connection offered by real, human performances will win out over AI slop. I think I agree—I definitely want to believe that’s the case—but until it actually happens, actors below Ford’s pay grade are going to be better off hedging their bets. Videogame voice actors in SAG-AFTRA remain on strike against major US publishers, with questions of rights and payment related to training AI models with vocal performances a main sticking point in negotiations.
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Kurt Indovina
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