Demi Moore parrots some AI talking points at Cannes

This, at least, is the tone Cannes jury member Demi Moore took at a pre-festival press conference on the Croissette today. “AI is here, and so to fight it is to, in a sense, fight something that is a battle that we will lose. So to find ways in which we can work with it, I think, is a more valuable path,” said Moore, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Although we should be somewhat afraid of it (Moore says we’re “probably not” “doing enough to protect ourselves”), “the truth is, there really isn’t anything to fear, because what it can never replace is what true art comes from, which is not the physical. It comes from the soul. It comes from the spirit of each and every one of us sitting here.”

Still, Moore’s opinion was not representative of the whole jury. Irish-Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty said (per THR) that the billionaires who own and operate the AI companies “assume the rest of the world will follow and swallow it, no matter what the consequences are. Look at the whole crisis now in data [centers]—affecting sustainability, water and populations.” Adding that “we must demand, I think, that it’s made transparent and more democratic,” Laverty opined, “I think people are beginning to realize that we should not let these tech bros—billionaires who are, mostly, right-wing libertarians—dictate how we live our lives.” Hopefully more people realize that sooner than later!