Scarlett Johansson wary of AI ‘threat’

Scarlett Johansson believes AI cannot replicate the "soulfulness" of an actor's performance. Photo / Getty Images

Scarlett Johansson doesn’t think AI can replicate the “soulfulness” of an actor or actress.

The 40-year-old movie star believes AI has a role to play in the long-term future of the film industry, but Johansson doesn’t think the technology can replace the emotional core of an actor’s performance.

She told the Sunday Times newspaper: “I just don’t believe the work I do can be done by AI. I don’t believe the soulfulness of a performance can be replicated.”

Despite this, Johansson believes AI poses a threat to society more broadly.

The Hollywood star said the issue was “the bigger picture – about how we human beings, with fragile egos, can continue to have the trust that we have to have in one another, to continue as a society. It’s a moral compass.

“We move around the world every day just knowing we have to trust in some basic reality that we all agree on. AI threatens the foundation of that, and that to me is very haunting.”

Johansson began working in the film industry as a child, and she recently acknowledged that child stardom can be a “dangerous thing”.

The actor – who made her film debut in North, the 1994 fantasy-comedy movie – thinks she was “very fortunate” to come through child stardom unscathed.

Speaking to Vanity Fair magazine, Johansson said: “Making decisions on your own – like, adult decisions as a kid – it’s a dangerous thing, right?”

The Hollywood actor has seen other child stars struggle to cope with the pressures of fame and success.

But Johansson is thankful: “I lived through that and also was very fortunate that I dodged a lot of it.”

Scarlett starred alongside Bill Murray in Lost in Translation, the 2003 comedy-drama, and she now views the film as a turning point in her career.

She explained: “After Lost in Translation, every role that I was offered for years was ‘the girlfriend’, ‘the other woman’, a sex object – I couldn’t get out of the cycle.

“It sort of felt like, ‘Oh, I guess this is my identity now as an actor.’ There wasn’t much I could do with that.”