Weird Al Yankovic Turned Down "Nice Pile Of Money" For AI Ad
The prince of parody music has spoken, as Weird Al Yankovic draws a line in the sand over AI.
The 5x Grammy winner recently noted he’s “not down” with artificial intelligence, revealing he recently turned down “a nice pile of money” to star in an advertisement for an undisclosed AI company.
“I’m not a fan of AI,” he told Syracuse.com. “I was offered this commercial before the tour. I’m not going to mention any names, but they told me it was for a business. It was business software that would increase productivity. And they offered me a nice pile of money. I said, ‘Oh well, yeah, sure, I could do that.'”
Yankovic continued, “And then a week before we’re supposed to shoot it, I find out, oh, this is, it’s AI. And I thought, ‘Oh no, I can’t be the poster boy for AI, forget it.’ So I felt bad about kind of pulling out at the last minute. But yeah, I’m not, I’m not down with that.”
The use of AI in Hollywood continues to be a hot-button topic. Meanwhile, SAG-AFTRA has endorsed the Trump administration’s AI policy framework, which calls for Congress to enact legislation that includes parental controls, intellectual property rights protection, First Amendment protections, expanding AI workforce development, allowing data centers to generate their own power and removing legal barriers that limit AI innovation.
Last month, Trump signed an executive order for voluntary framework in which AI companies would provide the government with access to new models for a 30-day review period before their release.
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Oh, thank GOD someone is willing to turn down a pile of money.