Since last year, Hollywood actors and screenwriters have held a protracted general strike. One of the core demands is to restrict employers from replacing human jobs with AI. However, actors are not facing the unemployment crisis yet, but the animals in Hollywood are really feeling the pain of being "laid off".
"Luke" is an African lion weighing more than 500 pounds. He is called the "Lion King" because of his beautiful appearance. He has appeared in many movies and lives a life like a movie star. But its owner Martin said that "Luke" has not received a job for a long time. Even Disney's remake of "The Lion King" did not let him audition. Instead, he chose to use AI to generate an image of a lion.
▲Luke "Luke"
Due to AI's increasingly lifelike processing of key details such as animal hair, animals in Hollywood are now facing a comprehensive "unemployment crisis." As the last generation of animal trainers in Hollywood ages, the animals that once brought so much joy to people on the big screen will become a memory of the past.
Animal actors are no longer in glory
"A lot of work is done by computers"
Sitting in a mansion and a big swimming pool, the waiters serve steaks and salads for meals, and there is a driver driving an oversized stretch luxury car when going out Picking up and dropping off...this kind of Hollywood star-like daily life was once taken for granted for the lion "Luke", but now it has become an unaffordable luxury.
"Luke" and his colleague "Marseille" are the last two lions in Hollywood. They have not received a job for a long time. Their owner, Martin, once employed 15 animal trainers to train various animals on a 100-acre farm. Today, Martin has only three employees and the pens where the animals are kept are basically 90% empty.
In Hollywood, the status of lions was once extremely noble. Luke's "senior brother", the deceased lion "Colonel", appeared on the Walk of Fame with Stallone and left his own paw prints. "Luke" himself has appeared in a number of films, including playing a wild lion in Botswana, Africa, in "Royalty." The end of the film also suggested that the lion may be the reincarnation of Princess Diana.
▲ Close-up of "Luke"'s expression
In addition to lions, bears, dogs, parrots and other other animals also find it difficult to find jobs. Veteran Hollywood animal breeder Mike Elhatton has been busy finding filming opportunities for her 35 dogs and 25 cats in recent years. Mike Elhatton said that today’s business is getting more and more difficult, which is very different from the glory days of the past. In the past, she flew to Hungary with five squirrels to receive an order. The advertiser asked the squirrels to put coins in their mouths into the vending machine. "Now all these tasks are done by computers."
Moorpark College in Los Angeles is famous for its animal training courses. Instructor Palme recalled that in the past, about 70% of "graduates" would go into work in Hollywood, but now less than 10% of "graduates" enter the entertainment industry. .
Human actors are also facing transformation
ai technology can make it easy for veteran artists to "reduc their age"
In 1993, the special effects of the movie "Jurassic Park" made the audience exclaimed, but at that time the film crew mainly used electronic model dinosaurs. It's nothing like the dinosaurs generated by AI today.
Today in Seattle, USA, a special "animal taming" team is providing services to Hollywood. For example, they can train a lion cub to climb on its father's head, then jump to the ground and roll around. The difference is that this little lion does not live in a lion cage, but grows in a computer hard drive. Their training isn't done with cookies and steaks, but with biomechanical elastomer solvers and quasi-static integrators.
In the early days of computer simulation, details such as animal skin and hair were easily distorted, but now the level of technology can make animals look "real". Although AI technology cannot yet simulate human gestures very well, it can already do many things.
For young and inexperienced actors, the impact of AI is that it has reduced many roles that can only be played by young people, because AI can allow older artists to "reduc their age."
▲ai technology helps Harrison Ford "rejuvenate"
In "Raiders of the Lost Ark: Tragedy of Destiny," which was released in June last year, animators used AI to explore the 1981 "Raiders of the Lost Ark" starring Harrison Ford. The footage in the movie made Ford, who was in his 80s, rejuvenated. Robert De Niro underwent similar age-reducing beauty treatments on Netflix's "The Irishman," and Samuel L. Jackson also used similar techniques in "Captain Marvel," which was released in the same year.
Some media believe that in the future, in addition to superstars, the demand for ordinary actors or extras will be significantly reduced. One of the ways out for them is to do some simpler and repetitive basic work, or to transform into funny and entertaining short video bloggers.
Red Star News reporter Zheng Zhi
editor He Xianfeng editor-in-chief Feng Lingling
