As fans enjoy the latest season of Ted, the popular prequel series to the comedy film of the same name, it has been revealed that one of the most unexpectedly funny moments was done using a controversial technology. Seth MacFarlane, the creator behind the iconic long-running animated sitcom Family Guy, has revealed how exactly he brought a former U.S. President to the small screen, and he may ruffle some feathers in doing so. During an interview with AP, series creator and director MacFarlane talked about portraying former President Bill Clinton in Ted Season 2. Besides his voice, MacFarlane is unrecognizable in the comedic sequence, which features the then-president mouthing off at Matty Bennett (Scott Grimes). The disguise was not pulled off using prosthetics or a heavy dose of CGI. Instead, MacFarlane confirmed that AI (artifical intelligence) was used to swap out his face.
“It’s an interesting example of how AI can be used as a tool… We tried prosthetics, we tried traditional CGI, everything else just looked terrifying.”
It’s unclear if the technique used was DeepFake, a method that places a face on top of another (using AI), or if generative AI was employed to construct an entirely new face. No matter the case, it certainly sounds like MacFarlane’s unfiltered voice as Clinton, based on an impression he has made over the years, including in projects like Family Guy. While many will have strong opinions about the use of AI, others may not even notice it during the brief scene, which is played for comedic purposes. As MacFarlane notes, he believed filmmakers used AI as a tool, and not as a means to replace his performance.

When it comes to Ted Season 2, it is only the latest example of AI being used in a television series. However, unlike projects like Amazon’s House of David, which used entirely AI-generated sequences to cut down production costs, MacFarlane stated it was out of creative necessity, while using a method that did not completely replace human creativity. The best comparison seems to be how Lucasfilm brought a young Luke Skywalker to life using a variety of technologies, including DeepFakes and heavily modified voice acting. Now, the question remains if there is a happy middle ground here, and if MacFarlane and the rest of the Ted crew found it (or went too far). As major Hollywood companies continue to invest in AI technologies, it seems inevitable that it will slowly but surely become a part of the filmmaking process. However, it should be noted that not all AI is created the same, as some industry veterans have come out as backers of the emergent tool in different ways. While director Darren Aronofsky got a lot of criticism for his AI-generated streaming series about the Revolutionary War (which features historically inaccurate visuals), another filmmaker is more concerned with how it could be used to support the creatives, instead of replacing them.

Most recently, it was revealed that Oscar-winning filmmaker Ben Affleck told an AI company he founded in 2022 to Netflix. Affleck, who felt like he had a “responsibility to my peers and our industry, to protect the power of human creativity and the people behind it,” created InterPositive, a company focused on introducing AI tools made by and for creatives. After capturing data on a soundstage, the company created an AI technology “trained to understand visual logic and editorial consistency, while preserving cinematic rules under real-world production challenges such as missing shots, background replacements or incorrect lighting.” Is this the path ahead? Time will tell, as Netflix will surely employ it in future productions.

Release Date

2024 – 2024-00-00

Network

Peacock