As Hollywood’s concern around artificial intelligence grows, Seth MacFarlane is justifying the technology after bringing one of his long-running impressions to life.
The Oscar nominee recently explained why he used AI in the sophomore season of the 1990s-set Ted, now available to stream on Peacock, to turn himself into President Bill Clinton for a cameo in the episode ‘The Sword in the Stoned’.
“I’ve been doing my Bill Clinton impression since the early days of Family Guy,” he told the Associated Press. “It’s an interesting example of how AI can be used as a tool and not necessarily trample on the art that the rest of the industry is doing.”
Related Stories
MacFarlane added, “We tried prosthetics, we tried traditional CGI and everything just looked terrifying. So we just said, ‘To hell with it, let’s try AI.’ It worked. It was the only way to look like Bill Clinton.”
In the scene, hot-headed Republican dad Matty Bennett (Scott Grimes) gets a part-time job at Dunkin Donuts, where President Clinton (MacFarlane) comes in for a photo opp, only for Matty to criticize him. The POTUS proceeds to cuss him out while putting on a smiling face for the cameras outside.
MacFarlane returns in Season 2 of Ted to reprise the voice of the eponymous foul-mouthed stuffed bear, who was wished to life by young John (Max Burkholder). The series is a prequel to MacFarlane’s feature comedies Ted (2012) and Ted 2 (2015), which starred Mark Wahlberg as John.