The actor and director Antonio Banderas stated this weekend in Málaga during the special anniversary screening of his film El camino de los ingleses at the Albéniz cinema that the film industry faces a “definitive moment” due to the impulse of artificial intelligence, a phenomenon that, he said, will be “unstoppable”.
The actor recounted the conversation he had with the mayor of Málaga, Paco de la Torre, alongside Antonio Soler, in which he explained that they offered him to participate in a production generated entirely with artificial intelligence, where his image would be digitally recreated and he would only have to lend his voice. Although he admitted that “he didn't know if it would work out or not”, he expressed his concern about the moment when studios realize that technology allows making movies without paying actors' traditional salaries: “This is over, a certain kind of cinema is over”. Even so, Banderas recalled that there will always be space for movies with flesh-and-blood actors, guaranteeing that traditional cinema will not disappear completely.
Despite this forecast, Banderas highlighted that "he is very leveraged in theater" because it seems to him that it will remain intact, defending live art as a refuge that Artificial Intelligence will never be able to replace and emphasizing "the value that live art and performing arts will have" in the face of AI advancements.
The warning from the man from Malaga adds to the global debate about the future of the audiovisual industry in the face of tools that promise to transform the creative and productive processes of traditional cinema.