One of the most iconic voices behind the nation’s longest-running scripted TV show says there’s zero chance AI could aspire to her on-screen magic.
The Simpsons star Nancy Cartwright said she wants to make sure she’s not replaced by a computer program when she eventually retires, preferring instead to “choose a successor,” People magazine reported Sunday.
“I’ll tell you why,” she went on. “Because AI has no heart, and I think that’s a missing ingredient.”
Cartwright has worked on the beloved animated series for the entirety of its run so far.
Its 800th episode, titled “Irrational Treasure,” airs on Fox on Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.
Cartwright voices Bart Simpson, schoolyard bullies Nelson Muntz and Kearney Zzyzwicz, the police chief’s son Ralph Wiggum, goofy neighbor kid Todd Flanders, and meganerd Database, alongside bringing a host of one-off characters to life over the years.
“[AI] might sound pretty close to Nancy Cartwright, but I got passion,” Cartwright told People.
“We’re spiritual beings, we can emote passion and uplift people and stuff,” she added. “And I don’t know that a computer can do something like that.”
While the Simpsons family got their first outing on The Tracey Ullman Show as an animated short in 1987, the series has called the Fox network, itself often a target of the program’s satire, home since 1989.
Disney, which owns Fox, signed a $1 billion deal with OpenAI late last year, sharing animation rights to characters from its Frozen, Star Wars and Marvel Universe franchises, among others, over to the A.I. platform’s generative video app Sora.
For the next three years, that licensing arrangement will allow users to create their own videos featuring beloved characters like Elsa, Yoda and Captain America.
Some reports suggest Disney is cautiously exploring the use of AI tools to speed up the creative process behind its animated films.
The entertainment behemoth has not otherwise publicly announced plans for using AI to create major animated films or series from scratch.
