AI Casting Update: Largo.Ai Says Acting Community Misinterpreted Its Intent, Says “Mission is to Provide More Access To Job Opportunities”
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UPDATED: The CEO for Largo.ai, the Switzerland-based artificial intelligence company behind the “100 Actors Program,” wants to amplify the intent of the company’s latest initiative that was red-flagged by Charisma Carpenter.
CEO Sami Arpa said the program was only meant to be a “very narrow beta release” for 100 actors, even though they received 5,000 applications. Their hope is to make the tool more public after they complete this initial “experiment.”
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Carpenter flagged the program on social media last week after receiving a random email from Largo.ai that promised “direct connections with producers and directors (by) allowing you to receive auditions directly from them.” It also said Largo.ai “will automatically suggest matching characters to producers/directors” and “you won’t be charged any commission for the roles you secure.”
Carpenter’s fear was that the program would essentially erase the role of casting directors, as well as agents and managers.
“Largo.AI is in full support of the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strike, this company was developed to empower and support creators through the power of technology, and not utilize AI to replace anyone,” Arpa wrote to Deadline. “Although we are known for our tools in helping both independent and established filmmakers develop their unique projects and retain their IP ownership – we launched our actors’ program only a few short months ago exclusively and are still developing during this beta process – this experience has shown us a certain misinterpretation within the acting community. We will use this as a learning tool for growth. Our mission is to provide more access and creation of job opportunities for both actors and are not involved in Deepfake creation or any unauthorized use of actors’ performances or voices, our AI tools are totally different here. Our platform is dedicated to empowering actors, providing enhanced visibility and making AI as a part of the preliminary casting process.”
“There are assertions suggesting that our aim is to replace all industry professionals with automation,” he continued. “However, one must consider who would then be our clients then? In reality, we actively collaborate with industry professionals such as producers, distributors, studios, and actors. Furthermore, we are keen on establishing partnerships with casting directors, and talent agencies. Our objective is to integrate the tools into their work, enhancing their capabilities with innovative technology. Using correctly, AI tools can collectively help us to make the industry better altogether, and create much more job opportunities. Our system diversifies opportunities beyond industry averages, often uncovers lesser-known talents, thus creating opportunities for those who might otherwise be overlooked. We encourage actors and industry members to contact us, share their perspectives, and engage in an open dialogue.”
PREVIOUSLY, July 24: There’s not much about the self-tape audition process that Charisma Carpenter likes. There’s hardly any feedback. There are no do-overs. And if she’s not paying a coach to read with her, she’s having to rely on friends in her midwestern town.
But she would choose that scenario — however flawed the new reality may be — than rely on artificial intelligence to help her find a job. So when she received a random email to join Largo.ai’s “100 Actors Program,” she waved the red flag on social media just as fellow SAG-AFTRA members were hitting the picket lines to fight for AI protections.
The email from a salesperson at the Switzerland-based Largo.ai promised “direct connections with producers and directors (by) allowing you to receive auditions directly from them.” It also said Largo.ai “will automatically suggest matching characters to producers/directors” and “you won’t be charged any commission for the roles you secure.”
“Welp, AI is coming for Casting Directors, Agents and Managers too,” Carpenter wrote on her Instagram account. “Seen as intermediaries.’ AI protections across the board! ✊”
One of the actors who responded to Carpenter’s post was Yellowjackets’ Melanie Lynskey, who wrote “having ‘intermediaries’ who believe in you and think of you for those roles that might not seem 100% right for you but they know you can do it, is how an actor builds a career. This is nuts.”
Reached by Deadline, Carpenter called the AI casting process “ridiculous” and insisted that “AI is not a belief system.” “They may take data and statistics and spit out a formula that says this person is right for this part, but there’s no foresight,” continues the actress best known for her work on Angel and Dynasty. “AI doesn’t know me, they don’t know the richness of my soul. They don’t know my life experiences. They don’t know the books I’ve read. They’ve never had those conversations with me to glean how right I am for a part that maybe data would not foresee.”
The Casting Society declined to comment on AI casting, but a spokesperson pointed to a recent Reddit thread suggesting that it’s a possible scam. It’s not, insists CEO Sami Arpa of Largo.ai, which also has a “presence in Los Angeles, London, and Istanbul,” according to its website.
“We can see that current reactions are quite superficial by positioning the overall AI as a direct enemy, by casting directors or voice actors,” Arpa wrote to Deadline. “Our system has nothing to do with both. Largo.ai has been mainly created for producers, studios and distributors, and many of them are already using our platform since 2019. The main goal of our platform is analyzing the content as early as the development stage from the screenplays, and provide feedback to the producers on the story, casting, and potential audience together with expected financial results.”
“Our system is not destroying any jobs as claimed in some of those Instagram posts, which are people who do not have any idea on the platform,” Arpa continued via email. “For the casting part, the system has proposed more than 100K actors to the producers completely free of charge during past 4 years. Our new system for Actors is just an additional system that we released for actors, after getting the demand from many actors. Because our AI was already proposing the actors to the producers automatically based on their previous credits during the past 4 years, and we were getting requests if we could provide option for them to connect with the producers directly in such a connection done by the AI. That is how we started this additional service in a narrow & experimental way for the actors.”
Carpenter has zero interest in exploring what Largo.ai has to offer. After she posted on IG, fans referred to it as “scary” while actor Jordan Gavaris (The Lake) called it “absolute lunacy.” “The only reason I’ve ever had a job is because casting championed me for amorphous reasons,” Gavaris wrote. “AI will never be a fan.”
“I have had wonderful casting directors that have brought me back time and time again to get me employed,” she tells Deadline. “I really am hard pressed to see what the advantage is to actors going this route.”
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