Nigerian filmmaker Akay Mason has said that artistic storytelling relies fundamentally on human connection, an element that modern technology cannot replicate.
Mason argued in an X post on Friday that AI-generated motion pictures consistently fail to evoke genuine audience empathy because they lack emotional depth.
“AI films will fail. Every AI short film I’ve seen lacks the emotional connection we instinctively feel when watching actual humans perform. It just feels empty,” he wrote.
Mason asserted that part of cinema’s enduring appeal stems from star power and idol culture, noting that audiences naturally gravitate toward real actors. Digital creations, he pointed out, offer no celebrity figures for fans to admire since viewers remain aware that on-screen figures are merely computer code.
While maintaining a firm stance against computer-generated performers, the director acknowledged the practical merits of using artificial intelligence as a supportive production tool to resolve issues surrounding visual effects, illumination, or audio mixing. He even joked about utilising ChatGPT to refine the grammar of his own social media statement.
Nevertheless, Mason stressed that the technology remains fundamentally limited when it comes to replacing genuine cast members.
“AI actors cannot replace a real actor’s performance, which is, at its core, the expression of the human soul,” he insisted.