Matthew McConaughey has predicted that moral apprehensions surrounding AI won’t last, because “there’s too much money to be made.”
During Variety and CNN’s recent town hall event at the University of Texas, the Oscar winner reunited with Interstellar co-star Timothée Chalamet and shed light on his move to trademark his infamous Dazed and Confused catchphrase.
As initially reported by The Wall Street Journal, McConaughey had eight applications approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last month, with the trademarked works including a “seven-second clip of the Oscar-winner standing on a porch, a three-second clip of him sitting in front of a Christmas tree, and audio of him saying ‘Alright, alright, alright.’”
Responding to a student’s question about the rise of AI, he said its presence was already undeniable. “It’s not going to be enough to sit on the sidelines and make the moral plea that, ‘No, this is wrong.’
“It’s not gonna last. There’s too much money to be made, and it’s too productive. So I say: Own yourself. Voice, likeness, et cetera. Trademark it. Whatever you gotta do, so when it comes, no one can steal you.”
Many have since pointed out his vested interest and defence of AI could be financially motivated, after he recently revealed he’d been an investor in AI software development and speech synthesis company ElevenLabs “for several years now”.
The company, best known for its AI-assisted text-to-speech software, has been criticised after its software was used to create controversial statements in the voices of celebrities, with a report from The Verge saying this ranged from light-hearted memes to erotica and hate speech, raising ethical concerns about deepfakes.
“It’s been amazing to see the growth from those early days to where the company, and the technology, is now,” McConaughey said of the project at ElevenLabs’ inaugural summit earlier this month.
“What’s remained constant is the extraordinary storytelling capabilities and creative potential that ElevenLabs unlocks – something that stood out to me from the start and that speaks to me as a professional storyteller.”
A CNN & Variety Town Hall Event: Timothée Chalamet and Matthew McConaughey is set to air tonight (February 21) on CNN, and will see the two discuss the former’s performance in the Oscar-nominated Marty Supreme.
Speaking to Chalamet during the town hall event, McConaughey referenced the film while giving an example of the AI scenarios he thought may be in store in the future. “They gotta come to you and go, ‘Timothée, I’d like you to be at my 50th birthday party in five months, and I’m gonna be in the Bahamas. I know you can’t be there in person, but I’m gonna halo you in, and I want you as your character in Marty Supreme,” he said.
“They can do that, but they’re gonna have to come to you to go, ‘Can I?’ Or they’re going to be in breach. And you’ll have the chance to be your own agency and go, ‘Yeah, for this amount.’ Or, ‘No.’”