Hollywood AI-listers: is the technology ready to rival flesh-and-blood film stars?

As a freaky Val Kilmer doppelganger stars in a new western and faux starlet Tilly Norwood is set for her feature debut, experts are split on whether mainstream adoption is a long way down the line – or just around the corner ‘Don’t fear the dead – and don’t fear me.

” An exact facsimile of a young Val Kilmer, not quite dead and not quite alive, utters that baiting line in the trailer for the new western As Deep as the Grave. Director Coerte Voorhees knows exactly what he is doing – this is an AI-created version of the late actor, approved by his family but bringing with it a heap of controversy about whether such technology could make flesh-and-blood thespians redundant. Not just yet, judging by the extended glimpse of the film released earlier this year : it looks like a thirtysomething Kilmer, if a robot version had been sent…