An AI actress has been created and born. Mass outrage among the Hollywood creative community with actors condemning it. Hollywood talent agencies have said they will not work with her. Their argument is that creativity must be human centered. I think that misses the point. AI can still be human centered because there’s a human somewhere that is directing the AI. Furthermore, I think the criticism misses some of limitations in fully human creativity.

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Everyone who watched Games of Thrones noticed the massive quality difference in the first 3-5 seasons and the final couple of seasons, with the final season notably weak. What started as an ultra-realistic critic of cheesy High Fantasy devolved into the type of show it was ostensibly critiquing. One of the most notable differences was how the show changed its approach to on-camera nudity.

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“Fuck You, I’m Naked” was the overriding philosophy of the first 3 seasons. The show was very in your face about it and this nudity created a sense of ultra-realism that was unlike anything on TV. But the last 3 seasons had a very different attitude toward nudity. There was none. Or at least the nudity was minimal and safe. The most obvious example was when Arya finally gets a sex scene in the last season and there is really nothing shown. This matters. By refusing to show what was really happening, and only showing the safe and bowdlerized version, the show ends its critique of Tolkien and company. Gone was the punk rock principle of “I’m going to show you reality whether you’re ready for it or not.” And the show greatly suffered.

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What does this have to do with an AI actress? Everything. Because the reason the show went safe is that the human actresses had gotten more famous and more powerful politically and refused to do more extensive nude scenes. Also, the general political environment had changed and with it changing attitudes of women’s nudity in film/tv. So, there was no way to keep the no holds barred nudity and with it the whole “Fuck You, I’m Naked” vibe. AI solves this problem. An AI actress’s feelings can’t get ruffled by requiring more nudity than she wants. So, if an AI actress had been available then GOT could have kept up its ultra-realistic critique of cheesy heroic fantasy and given us the ending that the show deserved.

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Creatives should not default to the idea that humanity is always better than AI. Humanity has its downsides and in certain circumstances AI can circumvent those downsides to create something better than humans alone could create.