Simon Pegg believes that artificial intelligence could prevent mediocrity in Hollywood

Simon is quoted by the Daily Telegraph newspaper as saying: "It might be a good thing in that it will stop us from being mediocre. There is a lot of mediocrity out there sometimes. Things that pass for entertainment are not quite as good as they should be.

"So if it ups our game because we want to escape the velocity of this creeping threat, then it's a good thing."

However, Pegg does believes that AI lacks the imagination and emotion that is necessary for the process of creating high-quality cinema.

The 53-year-old star said: "I think the writing process, it is a process, and when you write a first draft you write something that you know is going to improve and you will improve.

"If we get AI to write those first drafts the whole time people are only ever going to be doctoring scripts or giving notes.

"There's going to be no sort of genesis in them, no kind of heart. I read a funny thing that says AI hasn't had any childhood trauma so it's never going to make good art. But it's true."

Members of the striking SAG-AFTRA union want assurances that their work will not be taken by AI as part of their industrial action and Susan Sarandon described productions that use the technology as "soulless".

The 'Thelma and Louise' actress, who joined picket lines in New York on Friday (14.07.23), said: "I think it's important to present human beings to human beings.

"Even putting aside money, I don't know how people want to see a product that is soulless like that.

"It's pretty clear to me that on a very primitive level, if you could take my face, my body and my voice and make me say and do something I have no choice about, it's not a good thing."