Photo: Focus Features
Neville explained the decision toThe New Yorker, saying, “There were a few sentences that Tony wrote that he never spoke aloud. With the blessing of his estate and literary agent we used AI technology. It was a modern storytelling technique that I used in a few places where I thought it was important to make Tony’s words come alive.”
Despite Neville telling the outlet of his obtained consent,Bourdain’s estranged wife Ottavia Busiaquickly shut down the claim on Twitter, saying she never gave permission: “I certainly was NOT the one who said Tony would have been cool with that.”
“I didn’t mean to imply that Ottavia thought Tony would’ve liked it. All I know is that nobody ever expressed any reservations to me,” Neville said.
Busia also revealed toThe New Yorkerthat she recalls A.I. being mentioned in a conversation but didn’t realize it would be used in the film, saying via email that she “took the decision to remove myself from the process early on because it was just too painful for me.”
focus features
One film critic, Sean Burns, told his Twitter followers that he wasn’t made aware of the artificial voice before writing his review.
“When I wrote my review I was not aware that the filmmakers had used an A.I. to deepfake Bourdain’s voice for portions of the narration. I feel like this tells you all you need to know about the ethics of the people behind this project,” he wrote.
But Neville didn’t see the matter as an issue, tellingThe New Yorker, “We can have a documentary-ethics panel about it later.”
Using technology to bring digitally-produced versions of stars back to life has been increasingly common over the past years, famously forStar Wars' Carrie Fisher inThe Rise of Skywalker.
“People are more forgiving when we use this kind of technology in fiction as opposed to documentaries,” Meredith Broussard, NYU professor and author ofArtificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World, toldQuartz. “In a documentary, people feel like it’s real and so they feel duped.”
“The thing about ethics is that it’s about context,” she continued. “Three lines in a documentary movie—it’s not the end of the world, but it’s important as a precedent. And it’s important to have a conversation about whether we think this is an appropriate thing to do.”
A representative for Focus Features, which produced the film, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
source: people.com
