"That scares me!"

Nicolas Cage: Appeal against artificial intelligence

Nicolas Cage warned against artificial intelligence in Hollywood in a speech.(Bild: APA/Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

"I don't want robots to do the dreaming for us!" He has already made his aversion to artificial intelligence known in the past. Nicolas Cage has now proven just how serious he is at the Saturn Awards - the gala awards the best science fiction, fantasy and horror films - in Los Angeles. 

After winning "Best Actor" for his role in "Dream Scenario", Cage used his victory speech to warn: "There's another world that should make you very worried. It's already all around us: the new AI world."

"Absolute dead end"
For Cage, it is an "absolute dead end" if actors allow themselves to be persuaded to have their portrayal "manipulated a tiny bit by an AI robot". This is the beginning of the end: "The little finger will quickly become the whole hand. And the entire integrity, purity and truth of our art will be replaced by pure financial interests."

Nicolas Cage gave a fiery speech against AI at the Saturn Awards.(Bild: APA/Getty Images via AFP/GETTY IMAGES/Victoria Sirakova)

The 61-year-old then made a passionate appeal from the stage to his colleagues: "We must not let this happen!"

"Films will lack heart"
Cage's philosophy of acting is to humanize film characters by incorporating his own thoughts and emotions into the role: "A robot can't do that because it can't reflect humanity. But if we allow these robots to take over for us, the films will lack heart and humanity."

He ended with: "We don't want to have our lives explained to us by artificial intelligence. That's why I say: protect yourselves from AI interfering with your authentic and honest expressions!"

Last October, Cage said in an interview that he would refuse to have an AI version of himself created for films: "They just want to steal my body and then do whatever they want with it via artificial intelligence. By God, that scares me!"