Are virtual actors close enough to becoming sufficiently photo-realistic and human that they can at least substitute for human actors in all but close-up shots, if not in some cases displace and replace them entirely?
Hollywood-based artists agency CAA recently signed up a new client, virtual Brazilian model / dancer Lil Miquela, writes Steve Rose in The Guardian.
As Steve points out, they need never wonder if she is going to arrive late or in a bad mood, has no demands and always looks great on camera. Miquela is voiced by an actor. Movement and speech are both wooden. You hope that as she gains some AI-powered independence, both will become more sophisticated.
At the moment, it might be enough to use Miquela for promotional work, where how you look is often of greater interest than how you act, or simply shape her into a new kind of manufactured but sellable celebrity. The Monkees it ain’t.