David Tennant has revealed he is “terrified” about the impact artificial intelligence will have on the television industry and said it feels ‘horribly inevitable’ that it’ll lead to job losses
David Tennant is “terrified” about the impact artificial intelligence will have on the television industry.
The Doctor Who and Broadchurch star, 54, also warned job losses are inevitable as the technology reshapes the profession.
Speaking at the Royal Television Society’s Cambridge Convention, the Scot warned AI posed a particular threat to those trying to break in to the industry.
David admitted when asked if he feared AI’s influence: “Oh, terrified about it, of course.
“I’m sure there will be very exciting things that will happen and I’m sure there will be very chilling things that will happen.
“I can’t see a world where it doesn’t mean there are fewer people working in our industry.
“That just seems horribly inevitable and doesn’t help the pipeline of creatives. It makes it presumably even harder to get going, to find a space for yourself.
“I’d love to think that we’ll be good at carving out legislation and copyright laws, but the indication is that perhaps we won’t.”
The actor also insisted he had only used AI once, to get cooking advice.
Referring to the environmental impact of the huge energy-sucking servers to keep AI bots running, he added: “I’m scared to ask it anything. I have got it in my head that every time it does something a tree burns down which probably means I’m the last person to ask about what it can do.
“I’ve used it once to ask it what to do with some Brussels sprouts. That’s it. But I’m aware that inevitably these things are unstoppable.”
David’s comments come as the entertainment industry continues to grapple with the technology’s potentially devastating influence on almost all the world’s professions. Last year, thousands of US actors and writers staged strikes over pay and concerns about AI. Their demands included protections against studios using the tech to replicate performers’ likenesses without consent, and restrictions on the use of AI to generate script drafts for writers to polish at lower rates.
At one rally, David’s fellow Scot actor Brian Cox, 57, warned the industry was “under siege” from AI and called for “legislation that says “AI f**k off”.
David also said he hoped safeguards would be introduced but feared regulation may lag behind technology.
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