Can AI Replace Actors? Here's How Digital Double Tech Works

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July 25, 2023

Earlier this month, the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (better known as SAG-AFTRA) announced a strike. One of their motivations, according to a statement released a few days later, was to prevent artificial intelligence from replacing human performers. But digital replicas of actors already appear in video games, movies and TV shows. This week's primary story is about what it takes to produce these digital doubles, how AI is making the process faster and easier, and whether the technology will ever fully replace human performers.

Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, Technology

Arts Can AI Replace Actors? Here's How Digital Double Tech Works Motion capture and detailed face scans allow TV and film production teams to replicate a performer's likeness. Generative AI is making the process faster and easier By Lauren Leffer

Defense Here's What 'Oppenheimer' Gets Right--and Wrong--about Nuclear History Here's what a historian who has studied J. Robert Oppenheimer for two decades has to say about the new Christopher Nolan film on the father of the hydrogen bomb. By Lee Billings,Jeffery DelViscio,Carin Leong | 14:13

Robotics The In-Credible Robot Priest and the Limits of Robot Workers Some jobs just need the human touch to work, even with automated assistance By Joshua Conrad Jackson,Kai Chi Yam

Engineering How Empty Office Spaces Can Be Converted into Homes It is possible to transform empty office buildings into residential ones—but remodeling these spaces won't be easy By Jenny Baker,Leah Mo,The Conversation US

History What Was the Manhattan Project? The top-secret Manhattan Project resulted in the atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 By Tom Metcalfe

Psychology Teenagers Skeptical of Social Media Have a Lower Risk of Eating Disorders Young people can counter social media messaging that promotes thinness by bringing a skeptical take to their viewing habits By Emily Willingham

Animals Cities Use Spikes to Keep Birds Away. Birds Are Using Them in Nests Researchers across Europe have found bizarre nests bristling with the sharp metal stakes cities use to repel birds By Meghan Bartels

Climate Change City Sewers Can't Handle Climate Change's Intense Rains A Federal Emergency Management Agency analysis of New York City's inadequate storm drainage system shows that many urban areas can't handle more intense rainfall By Thomas Frank,E&E News

Defense What the Film Oppenheimer Probably Will Not Talk About: The Lost Women of the Manhattan Project Hundreds of the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project were women. They were physicists, chemists, engineers and mathematicians. Today we bring you the story of one of them. By Katie Hafner,Erica Huang,The Lost Women of Science Initiative

Policy The Supreme Court Should Back Firearms Restraints That Save Lives Vast evidence shows firearms restrictions in civil protection orders save lives By Jane K. Stoever

QUOTE OF THE DAY "It shows how the government is aware of its responsibility to protect citizens from potentially dangerous technology, as well as the limits on what it can actually do." Sara Morrison, Vox

FROM THE ARCHIVE A Nixon Deepfake, a 'Moon Disaster' Speech and an Information Ecosystem at Risk A new video re-creates a history that never happened, showing the power of AI-generated media By Jeffery DelViscio | July 2020

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