Tom Hanks has warned fans that an ad for a dental plan that appears to use his image is in fact fake and was created using artificial intelligence.
In a message posted to his 9.5 million Instagram followers, the actor said his image was used without his permission. “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 over a screenshot of a computer-generated image of himself from the clip.
The Oscar winner has expressed concerns in the past about the use of AI in film and TV, although he has not shied away from approving digitally altered versions of himself in film.
Aaaand it’s happening just as we all predicted. Stealing likeness in a whole new way
Right? I remember watching some time ago a AI-generated video of an actress - I think it was Kirsten Stewart - doing a monologue. It was eerily undistinguishable from reality. This is happening, and actors have all the rights to be upset by it until proper compensation rules are in place.
I think this goes deeper than just actors compensation. This will take things to a new level when this hits courtrooms. Imagine sitting there watching a video of you doing something you never actually did entered into evidence.
Captain Kirk in “Court Martial”.
“But…that’s not the way it happened.”
So perfect!
Even as a professional editor for over a decade who is actively looking for them, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell what is AI generated and what is real. I’m right most of the time, but most of the time is only like 75% of the time. And again, this is when I am actively looking for them. And the tech is only getting better.
Society is going to have to adjust to actually demand some proof of authenticity when it comes to content like this.
The good news is that techniques like public-private key cryptography do actually provide a way to do this, so at least on the technical side, this is a solvable problem. The harder part is getting people to question content that they want to be true, like political propaganda that affirms their own beliefs and biases.
Just imagine the mess we’ll be in when you can just generate an unlimited amount of videos of some disliked minority committing fake crimes and send them directly to people that you know will be receptive to radicalization, since you’ve already identified them through data brokers and targeted advertising.
Maybe this is just me getting older - hell, it probably is - but I’m getting more and more detached from tech in general and trying to find more meaning and enjoyment in real-life interaction, community, friendships, and connection, as well as more physical hobbies. I’m not convinced that humans are really equipped to mentally handle the world we’re creating, and I’m finding myself not wanting much to do with it.
Finding meaning away from tech is always a good idea. Helps us from getting completely sucked into the vortex of Silicon Valley.
…although he has not shied away from approving digitally altered versions of himself in film.
Besides being irrelevant, does this seem a little bit judgmental to anyone else?
Whoever wrote that apparently doesn’t understand consent
Tom Hanks was asking for it.
If he didn’t want to be digitally altered, he shouldn’t have given us the idea.
What was he wearing?
Just sayin’: I noticed a Woody when they digitized him. He seemed a very willing participant in the whole thing.
ChatGPT wrote it. Checkmate atheists.
deleted by creator
Between voice cloning, gpt-4, and social media, the technology exists TODAY for scammers to call you at 4am with the voice and intimate knowledge of a loved-one, and tell you that they need you to send them money for an emergency.
You thought old people were easy to scam before? We’re about to enter a golden age of manipulation.
My grandmother is a Greek immigrant and doesn’t speak English very well. Back in 2017 someone called her and told her myself and my mother were dead and she spent like 3 days freaking out and crying. I can only imagine what would happen if someone were to do that today while emulating a voice she knew…
Probably a good idea to come up with a code word or something for verifying it’s you.
And/or for signs of being under duress.
I read something recently that said a study was performed and Teens are most susceptible to getting scammed online.
I’m guessing that’s because of sheer numbers, there are going to be more teens online than any other demographic.
… Or you just have a word/phrase known between yourself and the other person.
Great, now we need a safe word just to talk on the phone
Mine is pineapples. What’s yours?
Nice try
Chariots chariots
Yes. I highly recommend your set one up today.
Didn’t this happen recently? I thought I saw an article about a guy in India who got an ai-faked video call from a friend who needed a quick money transfer to get out of a tough spot. He said it was sketchy but believable. It’s already here
And the answer is to get off the internet and start trusting those close to you more than digital strangers.
Yes, the technology exists. No, it’s not a threat for your grandma. Scammers would first need need to know which phone number is your grandmas, them they need to find out the relatives of your grandma, obtain enough sample data from your voice and train an AI model for at least a few hours to imitate your voice. That’s not a realistic scenario to do for a slim chance of getting a few thousand bucks. This kind of social engineering attack is only viable for very rich persons and businesses.
I’m sorry, but you’re assessment of how difficult that would be is WAAAAAY off.
Scammers are already doing stuff like this en masse with highly customized email scams.
The way this scam would work is to start with YouTubers, where grabbing the voice data is easy. Then you find their Facebook profile… Very easy, since people use the same usernames, or they go out of their way to link their profiles.
It’s a pretty easy step to make friend requests with those people. And then a very easy leap to find their relatives real names and towns through their Facebook connections.
Now you take their connections and towns and do reverse phone number lookups.
ALL of this can be automated. Every step.
The voice cloning and gpt-powered phone calls can be automated now, too.
The only reason this isn’t happening at scale is that scammers haven’t had enough time to adapt yet.
It’s weird you talk about how easy it is but your only example is with very public people where all you need is a Google search to get their info.
I’d guess that most people with public social media accounts would be susceptible to something like this. As long as there are videos available with the person speaking, which are plentiful by way of instagram reels / tiktoks, the rest of what the commenter described above sounds totally feasible.
You don’t need another example if you understand how many people are covered in that category.
Do you have any idea how many people have at least 5 minutes of audio on YouTube? (That’s all you need for voice cloning), tens of millions? Hundreds of millions?.. And how many of them have a Facebook, insta, tic Tok, or Twitter account? Virtually all of them.
If you wrote a script to do what I outlined, it would run FOREVER, because he users would be signing up and making videos faster than this script could ever hope to keep up.
People are reaaally downvoting you, but how would someone call my G-Ma and imitate my voice using AI?! My voice isn’t on the internet. That’s an insane thing to fear for any regular person.
Do you have a recorded voicemail greeting? There are techniques now to train an AI voice on as little as 3 seconds of audio.
I’m watching the whole thing now
Holy dick
Naaah I use the default, but that’s interesting!
Simpsons did it first.The good thing about this is that people maybe start questioning if a product for some reason gets “better” because their favorite actor says so - because he got money for doing so.
Imho, he doesn’t need to warn his fans, they are not affected by this at all. Maybe the toothpaste is even a bit cheaper compared to the one that actually paid a (probably very pricey) Hollywood star for their ad. He’s the victim, not his fans.
Wilson needs braces.
Dental plan!
Wilson needs braces.
Anyone got a link to the ad? Love to see how good it is or not.
I asked the same question. Somebody sent me this but I think it might be a trick.
lmao I can’t tell if this is a joke but that’s a screenshot of the movie The Polar Express
Ha ha yeah I was just messing with you
To be fair, if Skynet hunts humanity down, the terminators sounding like America’s Sweetheart Tom Hanks does come as some consolation.
“Reach for the sky!”
Anything for you, TH!
Great reddit humor.
You’re so funny.
That’s exactly why SAG-AFTRA are still striking rn.
No it’s not.
They are being hyperbolic. It is pretty clearly and obviously related.
Black mirror in real life. So it begins.
Black Mirror has been a reality for a few years now
Black Mirror has been a reality for a few years now
Gotta survive until San Junipero.
That would be a sweet ending without a doubt
Yup, silly me.
Is using an actor’s likeness without their permission copyright infringement?
In Portugal the law forbids taking pictures of a person without consent in public places if the person is the main subject(it’s okay if you’re filming something else and the person happens to pass). I used to think it was too limiting a law, but now I think everyone will need this sort of legal protection.
There are rules in Hollywood that they can’t use an actors likeness without permission, but obviously the people who made this ad don’t care about that. I think this is an area the law doesn’t cover yet, although it should.
Although using fake Shemps was somewhat common throughout the 20th century, Screen Actors Guild contracts ban reproducing an actor’s likeness unless the original actor gave permission to do so, largely because of a lawsuit filed by Crispin Glover — following his replacement by Jeffrey Weissman in Back to the Future Part II — that determined that the method violates the original actor’s personality rights. The method continues to be used in cases, such as Shemp’s, where the original actor is deceased and permission from the deceased actor’s estate is granted.
Copyright is very strictly for creative works, which your likeness is not.
You might be able to stretch trademark law into applying here, but my understanding is that, at least at the federal level, there’s not really much of a legal framework for dealing with this sort of stuff yet. Hopefully we’ll get something soon.
Likeness rights are state based and accordingly vary state to state. As usual with such things, you can just assume CA and NY is the “prevailing” law on it.
Tom Hanks and some woman going
DENTAL PLAN!
Lisa needs braces!
DENTAL PLAN!
Lisa needs braces!
DENTAL PLAN!
Lisa needs braces!
No no, that’s clealy Otm Shank.
It was a calculated risk, they just suck at math.
It’s definitely gonna cost them a number greater than 1 multiplied by what they would have to spend to actually contact Took Hanks.
Dental plan
Chet needs braces
Dental plan
Chet needs braces
Dental plan
Chet needs braces
I heard that while reading it. Like when someone says “Good news [everyone]!” and it sounds like the professor Farnsworth. God I haven’t thought about that episode in ages.
deleted by creator
