Tom Hanks warns fans not to fall for deepfake advert using his face
Sky NewsOct 02, 2023
Tom Hanks recently warned his 9.5M followers on Instagram that an ad for a dental plan. The ad appears to use a fake image of a younger version of Hanks made by artificial intelligence (AI).
"BEWARE!! There’s a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me. I have nothing to do with it," Hanks wrote in a post.
Hanks' warning personifies the problem with Artificial Intelligence and its use in the entertainment space. The unauthorized use of a person's name, likeness, or voice should be protected immediately. We are drifting into dystopian territory as these deepfakes emerge and infiltrate the content we consume.
Celebrities typically charge for commercial use of their likeness, and these rights can be enormously valuable, so it's possible that new economic opportunities could actually be created with AI likenesses of actors. This is just one of the many nuances that regulators must factor in when creating policy to help govern deepfakes. This is a tricky arena, but thoughtfully developing fair rules and regulations can ensure that a creative Wild West doesn't occur.
There's a 50% chance that the first original, wholly AI-generated #1 ranking feature film on a popular streaming service will occur by July 2030, according to the Metaculus prediction community.