Actor and "Wildcat" director Ethan Hawke sat down with Narcity’s Josh Elliott to talk all things A.I., as part of a chat for the Audi Innovation Series during TIFF 2023. Hawke told us how he feels about the technology’s progress and when actors are brought back from the dead.
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00:00 "Well, I'd be psyched that I time traveled."
00:01 So first off, I think the first thing I'd do
00:04 is probably wouldn't watch "Gattaca 2,"
00:06 but I don't know.
00:10 It would probably offend me to my core.
00:14 - Ethan, thanks for joining me, chatting with Narcity.
00:15 How are you?
00:16 - Yeah, doing great.
00:17 Thanks for being here.
00:18 - Listen, I love the timing of this,
00:19 Audio Innovation Series,
00:20 because obviously, innovation is such a key thing
00:23 that you guys are working through
00:24 with the SANG AfterStrike right now,
00:26 especially AI, the genie's out of the bottle.
00:28 So how do you approach that idea
00:30 of balancing human creativity with technology,
00:33 and especially this imitation of creativity?
00:36 - It's such an interesting question.
00:37 I mean, each generation gets hit with new riddles, right?
00:42 How we define progress, you know, is a really big question.
00:47 I, you know what, like I think a lot of people,
00:53 there's two parts of my brain.
00:55 There's the optimist, which says to me that,
00:58 I don't really worry about AI,
01:00 because AI can't do anything new.
01:02 All it can do is regurgitate what's been done.
01:05 They can make the Beatles sing a Hank Williams song
01:08 if they want, but they can't create the Beatles
01:11 when the Beatles didn't exist.
01:13 And what I'm trying to do my whole life
01:15 is to do something new.
01:17 And on the other level, I'm like, well,
01:20 what do any of us do but regurgitate old ideas anyway?
01:25 So has anybody done anything new?
01:26 I don't know.
01:27 You can get kind of pessimistic about it.
01:30 I believe that we respond to life and breath
01:36 and each other, and that there's a certain stunt
01:40 to technology.
01:41 You know, you can, how many times have you seen
01:43 the White House blow up in a movie, right?
01:45 It's not the same as really connecting to a performer,
01:50 and that I think what people really like to do
01:52 is see actors, musicians, painters.
01:56 They like to see people who are alive today.
01:58 They like to feel their breath in the frame.
02:00 They like to see them on stage.
02:02 They like to see them sing.
02:03 And I don't really worry that much about
02:07 what it's gonna do to art.
02:09 I worry about the commercialization and the materialism
02:13 and the fact that all we seem to prioritize
02:18 is making money.
02:19 And, you know, the same thing that's happening in the arts,
02:21 well, what's gonna happen when there's all the driverless
02:23 cars and trucks, and what are those people gonna do
02:26 for a living?
02:27 And what's it gonna be when you don't need anybody
02:28 to run a department store?
02:30 When, you know, I mean, we're putting ourselves
02:33 all out of work.
02:34 - You know, along those lines, you mentioned the stunt of it
02:36 and like the living, breathing human.
02:38 Let's say you and I jumped on a time machine.
02:40 We go to a point where we're both long dead,
02:42 and there's a Gattaca II where they brought you back.
02:44 How would you feel to see something like that?
02:46 - Well, I'd be psyched that I time traveled.
02:48 So first off, like, I think the first thing I'd do
02:50 is probably wouldn't watch Gattaca II,
02:52 but I don't know.
02:56 It would probably offend me to my core.
03:00 And I know what it's like when you see yourself
03:06 misquoted in papers.
03:08 I didn't say that.
03:09 It's upsetting.
03:11 I don't know exactly why it's upsetting,
03:13 but it makes you not trust mankind.
03:17 It makes you not trust reality.
03:20 And so I do think these are really, really important
03:25 questions to ask ourselves, you know?
03:27 And the essential question is how to define progress.
03:32 'Cause I'm not sure a lot of these things we're doing
03:34 are helping.
03:35 They're making somebody a lot of money,
03:36 but I don't know if they're helping anybody.
03:38 - And it's about making sure it's fair too, right?
03:40 Like, if your likeness is involved,
03:41 you should be involved too.
03:42 - I wish I had something smarter to say about AI
03:45 because I've been in some rooms where people
03:48 have really sophisticated conversations about it.
03:51 I'm such a performer that I'm just not,
03:54 my brain isn't equipped to engage in that conversation,
03:59 but I do, it is worth talking about.
04:01 - Everyone's trying to figure it out, right?
04:03 Nobody's got the answer.
04:04 - I know.
04:05 Keep this time to re-screen 2001
04:07 and start thinking about old Hal.
04:09 He wasn't a good guy.
04:10 - Well, thank you so much.
04:12 - Yeah, appreciate it, man.
04:13 (upbeat music)