Some of the attention-grabbing features of “Roadrunner,” the Morgan Neville-directed documentary about Anthony Bourdain, was Neville’s use of generative AI to duplicate Bourdain’s voice.
Wanting again now, Neville informed Wired that he noticed this as a “enjoyable” option to “preserve [Bourdain’s] voice going within the movie.” However his strategy drew intense criticism — whereas the artificial Bourdain solely learn phrases that the actual Bourdain had truly written, Neville mentioned many viewers assumed, “Oh, they simply made [expletive] up.”
“Many individuals informed me that there have been different documentary initiatives that had been doing the identical factor, that each one reacted; they both modified what they had been doing or put large disclaimers over every thing,” he mentioned.
Since then, the director has “assiduously prevented” utilizing AI. Even in his new documentary “Piece by Piece,” wherein he dramatizes musician Pharrell’s life with Legos (sure, actually), Neville was cautious to steer clear.
“Carl Sagan in [Piece by Piece] says, ‘Pharrell’ and I used to be very clear to all people that we had been, with permission of his widow, going to make him say ‘Pharrell’ with out utilizing AI,” Neville mentioned. “We truly experimented to assemble the phrase from syllables [he actually said].”
