‘Avatar’ director James Cameron says generative AI is ‘terrifying’

James Cameron’s films are often at the forefront of visual effects technology — especially the “Avatar” films, with their heroic blue Na’vi characters brought to life through performance capture.

But that doesn’t make Cameron a fan of generative AI.

in Interview with CBS Sunday Morning Tied to the upcoming release of “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the director acknowledged that performance capture (where an actor’s performance is recorded as a template for digital artists) could look similar to genAI. But in fact, he said, “it’s the opposite.”

“For many years, there was a feeling that they were doing something weird with the computer, replacing the actors,” Cameron said. “In fact, once you dig deeper and see what we’re doing, it’s a celebration of the actor-director moment.”

In fact, the CBS clip shows the “Avatar” cast members performing their underwater scenes in a 250,000-gallon water tank.

“Go to the other end of the spectrum, and you get generative AI, where they can create a character, they can create an actor, they can create a performance from scratch using a text message,” Cameron added. “No, that’s terrifying… and that’s exactly what we don’t do.”