Cate Blanchett Expresses “Deep Concern” Regarding Artificial Intelligence’s Impact

Cate Blanchett conveyed to the BBC her “deep concern” regarding the effects of artificial intelligence (AI). During an appearance on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the Australian actress remarked: “I’m looking at these robots and driverless cars and I don’t really know what that’s bringing anybody.” Blanchett, aged 55, was engaged in promoting her latest film, Rumours, an apocalyptic comedy centered on a cohort of world leaders stranded in a forest. She commented: “Our film looks like a sweet little documentary compared to what’s going on in the world.” When questioned about potential concerns regarding AI’s influence on her profession, she stated she was “less concerned” with that aspect and more so “about the impact it will have on the average person.” She added: “I’m worried about us as a species, it’s a much bigger problem.” She further asserted that the danger posed by AI was “very real” because “you can totally replace anyone.” She elaborated: “Forget whether they’re an actor or not, if you’ve recorded yourself for three or four seconds your voice can be replicated.” The actress, a recipient of two Oscars for her performances in The Aviator and Blue Jasmine, expressed her view that AI advancements constituted “experimentation for its own sake.” She observed: “When you look at it one way it’s creativity, but it’s also incredibly destructive, which of course is the other side of it.” In the film Rumours, Blanchett portrays the Chancellor of Germany, who organizes a G7 summit attended by other global leaders. She clarified that the political figures in the film were not modeled after actual politicians, stating she “deliberately stepped away from that as that’s what an audience is going to bring to bear.” Guy Maddin, the film’s director, further explained that he purposely refrains from disclosing the characters’ ideologies or allegories because “there’s an attempt when making sense of a movie for an audience to project on to it a message, a lesson, to find themselves in it.” Maddin elucidated that he began developing the characters “from a point of sheer contempt,” but as the narrative of the film unfolds and increasingly absurd events transpire, “you feel for them a little bit.” “They’re not politicians for very long, the structures that make them world leaders evaporate incredibly quickly,” Blanchett informed the BBC. She continued: “What you witness is that they don’t know who they are and that’s part of the artificiality of the way they have very little to do with the real world.” While discussions often revolve around actors being infantilized and indulged, she noted a similar phenomenon concerning politicians, who are infantilized and indulged by the system. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.