Artists have long been wary of AI taking their jobs, but what about putting words in their mouths? Lionsgate is dealing with such a problem after a marketing consultant used AI to write fake critic quotes for the trailer of Francis Ford Coppola’s upcoming movie, Megalopolis. In the wake of the controversy, Lionsgate pulled the trailer and parted ways with marketing consultant Eddie Egan.The trailer was created after the movie received mixed reactions at the Cannes Film Festival and was intended to showcase negative reviews of Coppola’s earlier works, many of which are now considered masterpieces.
Unfortunately, the “quotes” used in the trailer—some of which were attributed to well-known critics—weren’t real. As Vulture reported, one of the quotes says The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael found The Godfather to be “diminished in its artsiness.” Kael never wrote those words.Variety also did a test that showed ChatGPT spit out fake critic snippets that were very similar to those in the trailer. Deadline later confirmed that AI was used to generate the quotes.”Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” Lionsgate said. “We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and [his production company] American Zeotrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process. We screwed up. We are sorry.”
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For now, the trailer is still available on YouTube in case you want to see it.The movie, a sci-fi epic starring Adam Driver, is no stranger to drama. Coppola has been accused of inappropriate behavior on the set of the movie, which he denies.
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About Joe Hindy
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Hello, my name is Joe and I am a tech blogger. My first real experience with tech came at the tender age of 6 when I started playing Final Fantasy IV (II on the SNES) on the family’s living room console. As a teenager, I cobbled together my first PC build using old parts from several ancient PCs, and really started getting into things in my 20s. I served in the US Army as a broadcast journalist. Afterward, I served as a news writer for XDA-Developers before I spent 11 years as an Editor, and eventually Senior Editor, of Android Authority. I specialize in gaming, mobile tech, and PC hardware, but I enjoy pretty much anything that has electricity running through it.
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