Honorary Palme d’Or laureate frames generative AI as a craft tool, but insists actor consent and rights licensing are non-negotiable

AI in film is not a threat but just another special effect — provided that any AI re-creation of an actor’s face has the prior consent of the person or their estate.

That was the position Peter Jackson laid out on May 13 at his Cannes Film Festival masterclass, the day after he received an honorary Palme d’Or. His “AI-as-tool” framing adds a new coordinate to a Hollywood debate that has remained polarized between “AI as replacement threat” and “AI as productivity tool” since the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes.

피터 잭슨 ”영화 속 AI는 또 하나의 특수효과”… 칸에서 던진 ‘AI 도구론’
칸 황금종려상 받은 피터 잭슨 감독. AI는 도구다라는 입장 밝혀. 잭슨 감독 “AI를 제대로 쓰면 다른 도구와 다를 게 없다”며 ”핵심은 도구가 아니라 도구를 쓰는 사람”
K-EnterTech HubJung Han

As generative AI reshapes production economics and tests the limits of actor likeness rights at the same time, the VFX revolutionary who ushered in the era of motion capture and digital characters with The Lord of the Rings used Cannes’s official stage to publicly side with the “just a tool” camp — under one non-negotiable condition.