Ashton Kutcher doubles down on AI comments after facing backlash: ‘Need to be prepared’

Ashton Kutcher is addressing the backlash he’s faced after saying artificial intelligence could essentially replace a multitude of roles in the entertainment industry.

Last week, Kutcher spoke with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the Berggruen Salon in Los Angeles, praising OpenAI’s generative video tool, Sora.

“I have a beta version of it, and it’s pretty amazing,” he said, per Variety.

“You can generate any footage that you want. You can create good 10, 15-second videos that look very real. It still makes mistakes. It still doesn’t quite understand physics,” he continued. “… But if you look at the generation of this that existed one year ago as compared to Sora, it’s leaps and bounds. In fact, there’s footage in it that I would say you could easily use in a major motion picture or a television show.”

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Kutcher also pointed out that generative AI could cut down on production costs.

“Why would you go out and shoot an establishing shot of a house in a television show when you could just create the establishing shot for $100? To go out and shoot it would cost you thousands of dollars,” he explained. “Action scenes of me jumping off of this building, you don’t have to have a stunt person go do it, you could just go do it [with AI].”

The 46-year-old also noted that as programs and technology continue to improve, the results would be even better. 

“You’ll be able to render a whole movie. You’ll just come up with an idea for a movie, then it will write the script, then you’ll input the script into the video generator, and it will generate the movie,” he said, Variety reported. “Instead of watching some movie that somebody else came up with, I can just generate and then watch my own movie.”

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He continued, noting that to get a “catalyzing ‘water cooler’” moment, with audiences engaging in a more shared experience, “the bar is going to have to go way up, because why are you going to watch my movie when you could just watch your own movie?”

Kutcher faced backlash from commenters online.

“Imagine being Ashton Kutcher stepping onto a film set now, after coming out and advocating for all those crew people to lose their jobs and f-king starve. Gutsy choice, bud,” wrote one person on X, formerly Twitter.

“You could probably make an Ashton Kutcher movie with OpenAI’s Sora, but you couldn’t make a good movie with it,” said another.

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Following the backlash, Kutcher took to X to address his comments.

“I don’t think AI will replace the film industry or creative arts. It’s an amazing tool that we should learn to work with to become more prolific and efficient as artist. In the same way we use Avid, final draft, greenscreen, Led bg and other technical tools. Acting like it doesn’t exist will be catastrophic,” he wrote.

“Jobs will change, denying that is turning a blind eye to facts. There use to be someone that taped the film together. There use to be someone that checked the gate,” he continued. “We need to be prepared and understand what’s coming.”

During the initial backlash, one person noted that Kutcher has a venture capitalist firm that invests in AI.

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“The fact that Ashton Kutcher has a venture capitalist firm that is currently investing in AI should have been disclosed in the article,” they wrote. “He’s not speaking as a filmmaker (because he’s never been a director, DP, writer or editor) he’s speaking as a salesman for investments.”

Kutcher and music manager Guy Oseary co-founded Sound Venture, which last year included companies OpenAI, Anthropic, and Stability AI in its portfolio, per Variety.

Fox News Digital has reached out to a rep for Kutcher for comment.