United States: American actor and filmmaker Tom Hanks has warned his fans about a fake dental plan advertisement featuring his image, clarifying that it was created using artificial intelligence.
In a post to his 9.5 million Instagram followers, the actor shared that his image was used without consent.
“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 alongside a screenshot of the computer-generated image of himself from the clip.
Tom Hanks appeared as a CGI character in the 2004 animated Christmas movie, The Polar Express. The actor was also digitally made to look younger in certain scenes of the 2022 film, A Man Called Otto.
One major issue in the writers’ strike in the US that ended last week was the worry that AI without limits could harm the work of creative professionals.
The Writers Guild of America agreed with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television on rules for AI use in films and TV shows.
But the actors’ union, Sag-Aftra, is still on strike, causing a halt in most productions. The actors’ strike started a few months after the writers’ strike, focusing on pay and worries about AI generating unauthorised actor likenesses. There’s optimism that the agreement with the writers could help resolve the Hollywood actors’ strike.
In the upcoming film “Here,” directed by Robert Zemeckis and set to release next year, Tom Hanks will portray younger versions of his character using a tool from Metaphysic.
The AI company stated that their technology can instantly generate realistic face swaps and de-ageing effects during live performances, eliminating the need for additional editing or visual effects.