What People Really Want From AI
March 19, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readThis episode covers AI's role in resurrecting Val Kilmer for a film, Microsoft's restructuring of its AI teams for better coherence, a minor Anthropic product update, and a deep dive into Anthropic's study of 81,000 Claude users' hopes and fears for AI.
Val Kilmer's AI Performance in New Film
The indie film As Deep as the Grave, shot on Navajo land, uses AI to generate Val Kilmer's full performance as Father Finton, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist central to the 1920s Anasazi archaeology story. Kilmer was cast in 2020 but couldn't film due to throat cancer, which killed him last year. Director Cuerte Voorges obtained permission from Kilmer's estate and children, who emphasized his enthusiasm for the project tied to his Cherokee heritage and New Mexico home. AI created the visuals, while Kilmer's real post-surgery voice fit the character's tuberculosis. Voorges followed SAG-AFTRA AI guidelines, compensated the estate, and views it as ethical innovation when recasting wasn't feasible due to budget and location constraints. This follows Kilmer's prior AI voice use in Top Gun: Maverick. Critics like Raymond Arroyo argue it produces a "hollow" facsimile lacking human spontaneity and agency, though the family consents. The story has sparked debate on AI's filmmaking potential versus risks.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Episode Intro** - Teases main 81k-person AI study and Val Kilmer AI film role
- 2 (01:23) **Val Kilmer AI Resurrection** - AI recreates Kilmer's full performance in "As Deep as the Grave" with family approval
- 3 (05:49) **Microsoft Copilot Reorg** - Combines consumer/commercial teams under new EVP Jacob Andrews reporting to Nadella
- 4 (08:40) **Anthropic Cowork Dispatch Update** - Adds support for launching Claude Code sessions from mobile
- 5 (13:09) **Anthropic Study Intro** - 81k interviews via Anthropic Interviewer across 159 countries/70 languages reveal nuanced AI hopes/fears
- 6 (15:16) **Top AI Hopes: Professional & Personal** - Professional excellence (18.8%) leads, followed by personal transformation (13.7%), life management
- 7 (18:24) **AI Delivery on Visions** - 81% report progress; productivity (32%) and cognitive partnership top experiences
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
A new Anthropic study based on nearly 81,000 interviews offers a much more nuanced picture of what people actually want from AI: not some clean split between boosters and skeptics, but a messy mix of hope, anxiety, productivity gains, emotional complexity, and fears around reliability, autonomy, and jobs. NLW breaks down the biggest findings, why professional ambition and personal quality of life are so tightly linked in how people describe AI, and why dismissing the views of actual AI users is becoming its own kind of bias. In the headlines: AI brings Val Kilmer back for one final film role, Microsoft restructures Copilot again, and Anthropic’s Cowork Dispatch adds Claude Code sessions.
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