Tom Hanks warns of AI deepfake in dental plan ad
Reviewed By: Kevin Pocock
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Hollywood actor Tom Hanks warns that he has “nothing to do with” the AI version of himself seen in a dental company advert. The Tom Hanks AI dental ad was produced without his permission, and he warns fans not to fall for any scams using the clip.
The Tom Hanks AI dental ad
The 67-year-old actor took to Instagram, warning his 9.5M followers that the video was not real, and instead generated by artificial intelligence. He posted a photo of his AI counterpart, a screenshot taken from the promotional video, to the social network. The caption reads “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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What does Tom Hanks think about AI?
Hanks is no stranger to deepfake technology. In the past, though, this has been under his own control. The Oscar-winning actor’s face has been captured for the 2004 Christmas film “The Polar Express”. At the time, this was the only movie ever to use motion-capture technology for all characters. Similarly, he was de-aged for the 2022 motion picture “A Man Called Otto”.
Speaking on an episode of the Adam Buxton podcast, the star shared his views on AI technology.
“We saw this coming,” he admits. “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 billionfold since then, and we see it everywhere. Anybody can now recreate themselves at any age they are by way of AI or deepfake technology. I could be hit by a bus tomorrow and that's it, but performances can go on and on and on and on,” he continues. “Outside the understanding of AI and deepfake, 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. That's certainly an artistic challenge but it's also a legal one.”
“Without a doubt people will be able to tell [that it is AI], but the question is will they care? There are some people that won't care, that won't make that delineation.”
Tom Hanks, the Adam Buxton podcast
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