Why is Nic Cage "Terrified" of AI?

Nic Cage seems like a guy who's not afraid of anything. In fact, I've seen him described as a 'fearless actor' on several different occasions.

It's safe to say that when he's in a movie, it's exciting because of how far you know he'll go with the character to sell a story and a situation.

But, as it turns out, there are some things that keep Nic Cage up at night (and its not that he may be a specter in our collective dreams). Cage's fears don't go bump in the night... they show up on our screens.

Cage is currently working on the Spider-Man: Noir series with Amazon-- a spinoff of his Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse character Spider-Man Noir. To be in that show, Cage is scanned by computers in order to sell the animation and movement of his character.

Recently reunited with Susan Orlean for a The New Yorker profile promoting Longlegs and brought up this process, revealing some insight into what makes him tick.

“They have to put me in a computer and match my eye color and change—I don’t know,” Cage said.

“They’re just going to steal my body and do whatever they want with it via digital AI. … God, I hope not AI. I’m terrified of that. I’ve been very vocal about it. … And it makes me wonder, you know, where will the truth of the artists end up? Is it going to be replaced? Is it going to be transmogrified? Where’s the heartbeat going to be? I mean, what are you going to do with my body and my face when I’m dead? I don’t want you to do anything with it!”

So yes, Nic Cage is fearful of what they'll do with AI, especially to him after he passes away (hopefully never). I think this is a valid worry, as we've seen what AI can do now, and as the tech progresses, it's only going to advance.

But I think we have to protect the essence of who was behind those decisions. Not algorithms making predictions on how someone would play something, but someone actually playing something.

I also think we need to accept that death is loss, and an AI version of someone is just a vapid recreation of their form, not their soul, but that's a topic for another day.

Let me know what you think in the comments.