TOM HANKS GETS THE AI TREATMENT IN FAKE AD AS SAG-AFTRA STIKE CONTINUES
It’s pretty much a guarantee that if you watch TV, you are aware of the SAG-AFTRA strike which is still unresolved. Your favorite shows are delayed to no small degree, and movies you thought you were going to see maybe soon have had their releases pushed back as much as a year or more. Not to mention how your favorite talk shows simply… aren’t there, with one asshat exception. So what’s at stake? Money, of course. Mostly how little of it trickles down to the majority of people who act in, and write for, shows and movies. And, of course, there’s that pesky issue of AI, with Tom Hanks getting the latest AI treatment as a poignant, timely example.
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TOM HANKS FAKE DENTAL SERVICE AD A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF ONE THING ACTORS FEAR WITH AI
Over the weekend, Hanks let everyone know on Instagram that some nefarious group used an AI-generated version of him to market a dental plan. And, well, that’s one of several of the problems with AI for actors. Because no, Tom Hanks didn’t become a scab and do any work, never mind work for marketing a dental plan. He certainly didn’t get paid for it! Or make the choice to have his likeness be associated with something he had never even heard of before, never mind supported. So just imagine someone using AI to create a video of you saying how you support that charity that covers treatment for circus clowns with chlamydia? I’m guessing you might have reservations.
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SOON, ALMOST ANYONE COULD CREATE ANY CONTENT WITH TOM HANKS OR ANYONE WITH AI
Especially if you don’t even get paid for the privilege. But If I can think of that as a jokey example, that means I could actually do that to you, if I had a good sample of your likeness and voice. Then I could release it in a variety of ways where you couldn’t really track me. And monetizing that with anonymity wouldn’t be too much harder. But for actors like Tom Hanks, there are no formal protections for that contractually. And if he died? Would anyone be able to then create a ghost avatar of him for their own, nebulous purposes?
So Tom hanks posted over the weekend, “BEWARE!! There’s a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me. I have nothing to do with it.”
