Harrison Ford on CGI and AI in Movies: ‘When It’s Helpful, I’m Happy to Have It’

Harrison Ford gave a tempered response when asked about advancements in filmmaking technology like CGI and artificial intelligence. When asked by CNN host Chris Wallace about the many changes going on in the entertainment industry, Ford said his answer depends on the utility of the technology.

“As your work goes from movies to streaming, and we face a world of artificial intelligence, who embraces change, or kind of holds it at a distance?” Wallace asked Ford on an episode of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” that aired on Max Friday.

“When it’s helpful, I’m happy to have it, and when it’s not, I’m disappointed that we’ve chosen to use it,” Ford said.

“I think it’s not a question of the technology, it’s how you use it,” he continued. “I mean, we have the capacity to generate more enemies than anyone would ever face before. More airplanes in the sky than anyone would ever see. But what happens is you lose human scale. And if you lose that, you lose the audience’s ability to experience, consistent with the characters, the story that you’re telling. It’s too easy.”

Still, Ford marveled at the AI technology LucasFilm used to de-age him back to his 40-year-old self onscreen in his upcoming film, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”

“It is 40-year-old Harrison Ford, and that’s why it looks so good,” he said. “I’ve been working for LucasFilm most of my adult life. Every frame of the film[s] … that we’ve made together … could be mined with, here we go again, artificial intelligence. And they could find the right angle, the right light, so that it’s my mouth, my eyes, my face, married. It’s not photoshopped or anything. It doesn’t look that way. It’s real.”

“It was beautiful,” he concluded.

Ford touted the technology earlier this month as well, telling SiriusXM’s Jess Cagle “I feel very strongly that it’s the best example of de-aging, if you will, that we’ve seen yet.”

Last year, Disney unveiled “FRAN,” or “face re-aging network,” an AI-based technology that the company touted would save hours of post-production work. It is unclear if this was the technology used in “The Dial of Destiny.”

Ford’s comments come as the Writers Guild of America continues its months-long strike, with the use of AI in the entertainment industry being a key issue in negotiations between the WGA and Hollywood’s producers.