Robert Downey Jr. Says He Will Sue Filmmakers Who Use AI to Recreate His Likeness

Robert Downey Jr. warned that he will sue filmmakers who use AI to recreate his likeness after he dies — as the actor makes his Broadway debut in a play about the dangers of the technology.

Downey Jr. is currently starring in the Broadway play McNeal which runs through to November 24 at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York.

McNeal explores the way AI is disrupting the creative world. In the play, Downey Jr. stars as writer Jacob McNeal who turns to an AI chatbot to produce an autobiographical novel by feeding the program his own books and other classic literary material.

The actor recently appeared on the podcast On With Kara Swisher to discuss the play and his thoughts on the AI age.

In the podcast, Downey Jr. sent a warning to Hollywood studios who intended to create AI replicas of him — declaring that he would take legal action even after his death.

Initially, Downey Jr. tells host Kara Swisher that he was confident that Marvel would not attempt to resurrect his character Tony Stark in Iron Man through AI.

“To go back to the MCU [Marvel Cinematic Universe], I am not worried about them hijacking my character’s soul because there’s like three or four guys and gals who make all the decisions there anyway and they would never do that to me, with or without me,” the actor says.

However, Swisher tells Downey Jr. that future Hollywood executives “certainly will” want to re-create his performances with AI technology. The Oppenheimer actor then made it clear that he would sue any such filmmakers.

“Well, you’re right,” Downey Jr. replies. “I would like to here state that I intend to sue all future executives just on spec.”

When Swisher points out that the actor might be long dead when this happened, Downey declares that his “law firm will still be very active.”

The ability of filmmakers to bring dead actors back to the screen through AI technology is still relatively new — and highly controversial.

Earlier this year, late Alien actor Ian Holm was brought back to life with AI technology for the new movie Alien: Romulus.

While the filmmakers first contacted Holm’s estate to get approval before embarking on using the late actor’s likeness in the movie, some movie fans were not happy about the use of deepfake technology in Alien: Romulus.

Last year, SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union that represents 160,000 entertainment industry professionals, had a four-month-long strike against Hollywood studios — with AI being a major sticking point. Actors were concerned that Hollywood studios would create AI replicas of them in perpetuity without their consent.

As a result, in September, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two bills into law that will protect actors and performers from unauthorized AI clones.

 
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