A Deep Fake Version of Tom Hanks Is in Ads for a Dental Plan and the Actor Speaks Out Against It
As the SAG-AFTRA Strike trudges forward, one sticking point the actors are negotiating on is that of generative AI technology, and how the likenesses and voices of actors are going to be able to be used moving forward. The key to the debate is consent and compensation, but it’s wild how in such a small period of time, the tech has advanced enough to go from this being a brand new idea to making the theft of someone’s face and voice a major problem.
We just recently reported that actor Stephen Fry was shocked to hear that his voice was taken from the Harry Potter audiobooks and used to narrate a documentary that he had no knowledge of.
Now another story has cropped up, this time from Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks, who posted to Instagram warning fellow actors that a deep fake version of himself was being used in promotion of a dental plan, and he has nothing to do with it. Check it out below:
It’s weird, because you can definitely tell that it’s Hanks they were going for, but it only looks like him from the nose up. The actor didn’t give any credit to the company, as I’m sure he doesn’t want to actually promote them, and he’s surely taking legal action, but man, it sure does feel like the wild west out there in respect to this type of crime. Hopefully the strike leads to some sort of talks around this problem, and gets the start of ongoing resolutions on track. There’s surely no answer that will fix the whole problem at this point, but laws will have to be created and adjusted as time goes on and crimes change moving forward.