Robert Downey Jr. appeared on a recent episode of “On With Kara Swisher” and delivered a stern warning to Hollywood in the age of artificial intelligence: “I intend to sue all future executives” who sign on to create Downey’s digital company. An exact copy. The Oscar winner doesn’t want his on-screen image used by AI and/or deepfake technology. The topic has been brought up regarding Downey’s time at Marvel as Iron Man, but he is confident that Marvel will not recreate Tony Stark through artificial intelligence.
“There’s two paths. How do I feel about everything that’s going on? I feel like it’s a little bit because I have a real emotional life that doesn’t have a lot of room for that,” Downey said when asked about recreating it digitally in the future.
“To go back to the MCU, I’m not worried about them hijacking my character’s soul because there are three or four guys and gals making all the decisions there anyway and they would never do that to me, with or without me.” He added.
When host Kara Swisher said that “future executives would certainly want” to digitally recreate Downey on the big screen, the actor responded: “Well, you’re right. I would like to state here that I intend to sue all future executives solely based on the specs.”
“You’ll die,” Swisher pointed out, to which Downey replied, “But my law firm will still be very active.”
Downey is currently taking on the future of AI on Broadway in the play “McNeal,” which takes aim at AI giants like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
“I don’t envy anyone who’s been overly identified with the coming of this new phase of the information age. The idea that they’re one way or the other because they have these huge startups is a fallacy,” Downey told Swisher of figures like Altman. These individuals feel that they are the arbiters of this matter but at the same time they want and/or need to be seen in a positive light. This is a big silly mistake. “This repulses me and makes me not want to deal with them because they are not honest.”
Downey is currently preparing to return to Marvel, but he’s doing so as a human and not a digital replica of Tony Stark. He doesn’t actually play Tony Stark/Iron Man at all, instead taking on the role of the villainous Dr. Doom starting in 2026’s “Avengers: Doomsday.”
Listen to Downey’s full interview on the “On With Kara Swisher” podcast here.