“I have nothing to do with it.”
Ad Age
Amid the still-ongoing Screen Actors’ Guild strike, celebs are fighting back against AI being used to replicate their likenesses without their consent — and now, the great Tom Hanks has joined the battle.
“BEWARE!!” the actor wrote in an Instagram post. “There’s a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me. I have nothing to do with it.”
Hanks posted a noticeably AI-manipulated screenshot that appears to be from the video, though neither Futurism nor any other news outlet have been able to find the original. As Gizmodo pointed out, however, the image it was trained on seems to be an old one of the actor that’s owned by the Los Angeles Times.
Creative Control
Hank’s warning wasn’t the only celebrity AI story that made headlines over the weekend, either.
In a since-expired Instagram story from Sunday, Zelda Williams, the daughter of the late legend Robin Williams, also took on nonconsensual use of the technology.
“I’ve witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/re-create actors who cannot consent, like Dad,” the comedian’s daughter wrote in her own post. “Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices, to voice cartoons, to put their HUMAN effort and time into the pursuit of performance.”
In spite of having authorized at least one notable AI manipulation and discussing the possibility of his AI replica being used in films following his death, Hanks also appears concerned about the existential threats the technology poses for Hollywood creators.
“The entire industry is at a crossroads, and everybody knows it,” Hanks said in May during an appearance on CBS Mornings. “The financial motor has to be completely redefined. And there is some degree of pie here that is going to have to be equitably distributed by the people who are responsible for the content — not the folks who make the deals for the content, the folks who actually make it.”
With heavy hitters like Hanks and the daughter of one of Hollywood’s most beloved deceased actors coming out against the overzealous use of AI, one would think the tide might turn in favor of putting up guardrails — and hopefully, we’ll find out soon enough as SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers go back to the table this week.
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