Robert Downey, Jr. Says He Would Sue Over AI Likeness

Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. has said he would sue any executives who recreated his likeness with artificial intelligence (AI), even if he was no longer around to see it.

Downey told the On With Kara Swisher podcast that he was not overly concerned that Marvel Studios, owned by Disney, would try to recreate his character.

“I am not worried about them hijacking my character’s soul because there’s like three or four guys and gals who make all the decisions there anyway and they would never do that to me, with or without me,” he said.

After Swisher pointed out that those executives would all eventually be replaced, he said: “Well, you’re right. I would like to here state that I intend to sue all future executives just on spec.”

Copyright concerns

Swisher said he might be dead by then, to which Downey replied, “But my law firm will still be very active.”

Downey is involved with several AI firms, including investing in the FootPrint Coalition, which aims to use robotics and AI to reduce humans’ carbon footprint.

He is also on the board of an organisation that uses AI to improve cybersecurity, but he said he is not necessarily aligned with any particular technology or business.

“It always comes down to not the technology or the opportunity to line my pockets as much as, ‘Who are the people involved with this?’” he said.

Hollywood video game performers are currently on strike in an action that began in July after 18 months of negotiations broke down, in part over artificial intelligence protections.

Last year’s film and television strikes, which lasted four months, also involved AI issues and resulted in a requirement for productions to obtain the informed consent of actors to use their digital doubles.

Downey made his Broadway debut this month as the lead in “McNeal”, a one-act play that touches on issues involving AI and copyright infringement.

But he said he does not personally spend time thinking about issues around AI and deepfakes “because I have an actual emotional life that’s occurring that doesn’t have a lot of room for that”.

‘Super-huge start-ups’

The 59-year-old also expressed scepticism around the intense business and investor focus on AI over the past two years.

“I don’t envy anyone who has been over-identified with the advent of this new phase of the information age,” he said.

“The idea that somehow it belongs to them because they have these super huge start-ups is a fallacy.”

One in three venture capital dollars this year has been invested in AI start-ups, according to CB Insights.

Downey’s Iron Man 2 co-star Scarlett Johansson, who played the voice of an AI in the 2013 film Her, in May expressed “shock” at a voice introduced by OpenAI’s ChatGPT that she said was “eerily similar” to hers.

The voice was later removed.