In an interview with Time, the actor discussed why true art must be anchored by human beings
When discussing the future of movies, Leonardo DiCaprio has his doubts about AI. When speaking to TIME as their Entertainer of the Year, the actor acknowledged AI’s ability to assist filmmaking but said true art is anchored by humanity.
“It could be an enhancement tool for a young filmmaker to do something we’ve never seen before,” he told the publication. “I think anything that is going to be authentically thought of as art has to come from the human being.”
He continued, “Otherwise—haven’t you heard these songs that are mashups that are just absolutely brilliant and you go, ‘Oh my God, this is Michael Jackson doing the Weeknd,’ or ‘This is funk from the A Tribe Called Quest song ‘Bonita Applebum,’ done in, you know, a sort of Al Green soul-song voice, and it’s brilliant.’ And you go, ‘Cool.’ But then it gets its 15 minutes of fame and it just dissipates into the ether of other internet junk.” DiCaprio added, “There’s no anchoring to it. There’s no humanity to it, as brilliant as it is.”
As artificial bands like Velvet Sundown skyrocket in popularity and stream on Spotify, and AI is used to create new personalities like “DJ Tori,” and computer-generated R&B artist, Xania Monet, real-life musicians have pushed back and called for guardrails on the technology.
“People should know whether what they’re listening to is a human voice or not. You should be required to say that,” Breland told senior music editor Joseph Hudak in a recent interview on Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast. “When it comes to AI and music, to me, music is such an innately human experience… So, if we’re going to take something that humans have been doing exclusively for tens of thousands of years, and is as integral as it is… how on earth would we be comfortable with that process being automated, and taking the humanity out of it?”
