Weird Al Yankovic admitted he turned down “a nice pile of money” to appear in an AI ad because he wasn’t willing to be “the poster boy” for the technology.
The parody musician, known for his comedy songs, including “Amish Paradise,” “White & Nerdy” and “Like a Surgeon,” addressed his stance on artificial intelligence during an interview with Syracuse.com on Monday, where he admitted he was “not a fan of AI.”
“I was offered this commercial before the tour,” Yankovic recalled. “I’m not going to mention any names, but they told me it was for a business. It was business software that would increase productivity. And they offered me a nice pile of money. I said, ‘Oh well, yeah, sure, I could do that.’”
However, Yankovic shared that he pulled out “a week before [they were] supposed to shoot” after finding out the ad was for AI.
“And I thought, ‘Oh no, I can’t be the poster boy for AI, forget it,’” he said. “So I felt bad about kind of pulling out at the last minute. But yeah, I’m not, I’m not down with that.”
Yankovic is not the first celebrity to speak out against AI, which has become a hot-button topic among the industry in recent months. For instance, SAG-AFTRA has been leading the charge against AI-generated deepfakes, even endorsing the NO FAKES Act back in June.
As we previously reported, SAG-AFTRA issued an open letter featuring 16,000 signatures that called for Congress to pass the NO FAKES Act, a bill designed to counter the wave of AI-generated deepfakes online.
“Unchecked AI can ruin lives,” SAG-AFTRA president Sean Astin said at the time. “Americans are demanding that the Federal Government take sensible action. The NO FAKES Act would establish a fundamental protection to control their own voice and likeness.”
Actors Scarlett Johansson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt have also been vocal critics of AI, publicly speaking out against the technology and demanding better protections.
However, not everyone in Hollywood is pushing back against artificial intelligence, as Reese Witherspoon recently encouraged women to learn AI tools and Sandra Bullock noted it was time to “lean into” the technology.
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