‘Beware’: Tom Hanks issues warning after being targeted in an AI-generated video hoax
Hollywood star Tom Hanks is not happy after an AI-generated video featuring his image circulated the internet without his permission.
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Tom Hanks has issued a stern warning to his followers after an AI-generated video featuring his image circulated the internet.
The Hollywood star alerted his 9.5 million Instagram followers that a clip starring a computer-generated image of himself promoting a dental plan was fake and made without his permission or knowledge.
“BEWARE!! There’s a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me. I have nothing to do with it,” the 67-year-old actor captioned a screenshot of the AI image used in the hoax, but refrained from providing specific details about the dental plan being promoted in the video.
The Elvis star has been vocal about the TV and film industry’s growing use of artificial intelligence, which would allow creatives to replicate an actor’s likeness in a computer-generated image or superimposed over a stunt double.
“The first time we did a movie that had a huge amount of our own data locked in a computer — literally what we looked like — was a movie called The Polar Express,” he said on The Adam Buxton Podcast in May, referencing his 2004 Christmas animated film.
“We saw this coming. We saw that there was going to be this ability to take zeros and ones inside a computer and turn it into a face and a character. Now that has only grown a billion-fold since then, and we see it everywhere.”
Hanks went on to express his concerns about the “lingering” use of AI in his industry, as fans may not be able to distinguish between the fake image and the real actor.
“I can tell you that there [are] discussions going on in all of the guilds, all of the agencies, and all of the legal firms to come up with the legal ramifications of my face and my voice — and everybody else’s — being our intellectual property,” Hanks said in the podcast.
He continued: “Anybody can now recreate themselves at any age they are, by way of AI or deep fake technology… I could be hit by a bus tomorrow and that’s it, but my performances can go on and on and on.
“Outside of the understanding that it’s been done by AI or deep fake, there’ll be nothing to tell you that it’s not me and me alone, and it’s going to have some degree of lifelike quality.”
This concern is shared by Hanks’ peers.
A point of debate during the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strike is the need to safeguard the industry against AI technology, which can potentially use a star’s likeness without their permission or replace background actors entirely.
Originally published as ‘Beware’: Tom Hanks issues warning after being targeted in an AI-generated video hoax
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