Når man sætter sig ned og taler med kunstnere i disse dage, er det svært ikke at berøre den enorme, grå sky, der hænger over hovedet på dem: AI. Uanset om man frygter det eller forsøger at flygte fra det, så har de folk, der investerer milliarder i teknologien, tænkt sig at føre den ud i livet - og for en skuespiller som Troy Baker og en komponist som Austin Wintory føles deres levebrød truet.
Under vores samtale med parret ved Comicon i Napoli fandt vi dog både en vis interesse og en forståelig tøven over for teknologien.
"I don't think you could ever discount the ingenuity and resiliency of an artist trying to find a way to make money at what they do," sagde Baker, og forklarede at kreative sjæle altid vil finde en vej. "There's a quote by David Milch where he said, 'the exegesis of the artist situation are always of the financial.' It's always trying to find a way to subsidize our addiction of doing what we do. And if we have to sell our soul, as Harrison Ford put it, or find very unique ways to make money so we can continue to do this, sure, I think that shows the agency and the authority that an artist has over their work."
"But I can also see how someone can just easily, quickly bastardize that. If you look at what I do, I've stolen from everybody that I've ever respected. In some ways, there's a fingerprint of what they've done on me. I mean, you'll find a little bit of Nolan North in me," forklarede han. "It's like, does the Beatles need the Stones? The Stones need the Beatles. Everybody traces themselves back to the same lineage. We're all thieves. And I think that if we regard ourselves as anything but, we're fooling ourselves."
Austin Wintory tilføjede, at han også har stjålet i løbet af sin karriere, men at teknologi påvirker kunsten på mange måder. Han sammenlignede AI med Photoshop - nogle vil aldrig røre det, mens andre skaber en hel karriere med det.
"I refuse to be pessimistic about it. Now, I don't know the implications. I don't want to be naive either. But I also look at it and I go, hey, if it comes and it takes my job, the universe doesn't owe me my job. I hope I can do this until my dying days like Jerry Goldsmith. But I can't guarantee that and I certainly can't force reality to promise me that. And so I'm not going to try."
Se hele vores interview herunder for at få det seneste fra Wintory og Baker, herunder deres tanker om fremtidige projekter og deres fælles rejse ind i spiludvikling.