Tom Hanks calls out dental ad feat. AI version of him for promotion

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News Websites
3 Oct 2023 16:22

Artificial intelligence has been one of the topics behind the ongoing actors' strike in Hollywood since it allows easier and cheaper use of CGI to create performances by actors not present.

Tom Hanks arrives at the Governors Awards on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022, at Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, California, US (AP)

Renowned actor and Hollywood actor Tom Hanks took to Instagram to warn users that a video of him promoting a dental plan is fake and AI-used.

He shared a photo from the apparent video that showed him as his younger self.

“BEWARE!!” he wrote on his verified Instagram account, adding: “There’s a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me. I have nothing to do with it.”

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A post shared by Tom Hanks (@tomhanks)

CNN reached out to his representatives for comment since it could not fully verify the existence of the video.

Artificial intelligence has been one of the topics behind the ongoing actors' strike in Hollywood since it allows easier and cheaper use of CGI to create performances by actors not present.

The actors' union, SAG-AFTRA, stated that studios want to resort to AI to cut acting jobs by creating digital similarities to apply eternally without fair compensation.

Tom Hanks lives literally 'forever'?

Hanks previously raised warnings regarding AI. Back in May in “The Adam Buxton Podcast”, he said that movie agents are negotiating contracts to protect actors’ similarities as intellectual property.

He suggested that AI could even allow him to star in movies after he passes away.

“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,” he added.

“Without a doubt, people will be able to tell, but the question is, will they care?” he said. “There are some people that won’t care, that won’t make that delineation.”

“This has always been lingering,” Hanks continued. “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.’”

“We saw this coming, we saw that there was going to be this ability in order to take zeros and ones inside a computer and turn it into a face and a character. Now, that has only grown a billionfold since then and we see it everywhere.”