The AmericanBarAssociation.com reported that “With deepfake videos already commonplace and nearly indistinguishable from authentic ones, feature films using AI actors seem like the next logical step.” The October 1, 2026 article entitled “Technology is changing how Hollywood replaces actors—and testing the limits of publicity law” (https://tinyurl.com/288fxs92) included these comments:
“I’m genuinely surprised at how quickly things have advanced in the last few years,” says James Grimmelmann, Tessler Family Professor of Digital and Information Law at Cornell Law School. “I have been following AI generation since the mid-2010s when new large datasets were making a big difference in the quality of results, but even so, I’ve been stunned at how quickly things have moved in the last five years. It’s unclear how long this will continue, but even this has been genuinely breathtaking.”
But with great technology comes greater legal issues, and generative AI has generated plenty. Hollywood has always relied on stand-ins, stock footage and visual tricks for otherwise absent actors. Generative AI is transforming those workarounds into fully digital performances, forcing courts and lawmakers to decide whether decades-old publicity laws can keep pace. It has also raised similar questions that other industries are struggling with, such as whether AI could eventually replace human actors.
Anyone surprised by this news?
First published at https://www.vogelitlaw.com/blog/ais-use-in-hollywood-is-an-interesting-challenge-to-the-need-for-human-actors