Actor or AI? Tom Hanks Thinks Audiences May Not Care

Tom Hanks chatted about the upcoming Wes Anderson film “Asteroid City” as well as dogs and the possibility that he will be an eternal star thanks to AI animating him long after he’s dead in a recently published podcast.

“I could get together and pitch a series of seven movies that would star me in them in which I would be 32 years old from now until kingdom come,” Hanks told The Adam Buxton Podcast, stating a real possibility in the current filmmaking landscape.

“I could be hit by a bus tomorrow and that’s it, but my performances can go on and on and on and on and on,” he continued, citing the implications of modern-day AI and deepfake technology. He referenced the fact that all of this technological nuttiness was forecast back when 2004’s “The Polar Express” debuted, a movie Hanks attributes (at least in part) with kick-starting the notion that computer-stored data of an actor could very well make a film just as much as actors themselves could.

While Hanks and the Buxton agreed that people will be able to distinguish the difference between AI actors and real human beings who were actually captured on camera, Hanks wasn’t sure people would care either way.

“I think you might have more faith in the human condition than others,” Hanks said in response to Buxton’s position that people would care about the difference. “There are some people that won’t care.”

Hanks isn’t on the anti-AI bandwagon by any means. Just like when he teamed up with Robert Zemeckis for “Polar Express” and put his body inside a computer, the actor and director will once again be teaming up for Zemeckis’ new film “Here,” which will feature AI de-aging.

Tom Hanks chatted about the upcoming Wes Anderson film “Asteroid City” as well as dogs and the possibility that he will be an eternal star thanks to AI animating him long after he’s dead in a recently published podcast.

“I could get together and pitch a series of seven movies that would star me in them in which I would be 32 years old from now until kingdom come,” Hanks told The Adam Buxton Podcast, stating a real possibility in the current filmmaking landscape.

“I could be hit by a bus tomorrow and that’s it, but my performances can go on and on and on and on and on,” he continued, citing the implications of modern-day AI and deepfake technology. He referenced the fact that all of this technological nuttiness was forecast back when 2004’s “The Polar Express” debuted, a movie Hanks attributes (at least in part) with kick-starting the notion that computer-stored data of an actor could very well make a film just as much as actors themselves could.

While Hanks and the Buxton agreed that people will be able to distinguish the difference between AI actors and real human beings who were actually captured on camera, Hanks wasn’t sure people would care either way.

“I think you might have more faith in the human condition than others,” Hanks said in response to Buxton’s position that people would care about the difference. “There are some people that won’t care.”

Hanks isn’t on the anti-AI bandwagon by any means. Just like when he teamed up with Robert Zemeckis for “Polar Express” and put his body inside a computer, the actor and director will once again be teaming up for Zemeckis’ new film “Here,” which will feature AI de-aging.