Matthew McConaughey gets candid about AI threat to actors: 'Be prepared'

Matthew McConaughey did not mince his words when he warned AI is a threat to actors, which could replace them.

“It’s coming. It’s already here,” he said, adding, “Don’t deny it. It’s not going to be enough to sit on the sidelines and make the moral plea that, ‘No, this is wrong.’ It’s not gonna last. There’s too much money to be made, and it’s too productive."

His remarks come during a conversation at Variety and CNN’s town hall event at the University of Texas at Austin.

The Academy-nominated star further added, “It’s damn sure going to infiltrate our category. Does it become another category? Will we be, in five years, having ‘the best AI film’? ‘The best AI actor?'”

"That’s one of the big questions right now: the question of reality. It’s more hazy than ever — in a very exciting way, I think, but also a scary way. Prep for it. Own your own lane, so you at least have agency when it starts to trespass.”

But amid the threat, McConaughey offered young artists advice on how to tackle the threat of AI. 

"So I say: Own yourself. Voice, likeness, et cetera. Trademark it. Whatever you gotta do, so when it comes, no one can steal you," he concluded.