- Tom Hanks is coming out with a warning
- He revealed his image is being used illegally online
- THIS is what he told fans on Instagram
It's a scary new world of artificial intelligence in our midst. Tom Hanks says he has "nothing to do with" an AI version of himself that is promoting "some dental plan, he said on Instagram on Sunday. Alongside his warning, Hanks shared a photo of an apparent AI likeness depicting his younger self, though it is unclear whether this came from the dental plan ad. Hanks previously discussed AI on 'The Adam Buxton Podcast.'
"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," Tom concluded. And he's right. "Without a doubt people will be able to tell [that it’s AI], but the question is will they care? There are some people that won’t care, that won’t make that delineation," the actor confessed.
Tom is watching this new technology carefully
Hanks also suggested on the same podcast that the technology could allow him to keep appearing in new movies after he dies. While Hanks acknowledged that an AI version of himself would not be able to produce the same performances as he does now, he wondered whether audiences would really mind. The task of creating an AI Hanks would be made easier, as his likeness and movements were recorded for use in the 2004 movie 'The Polar Express,' he said.
"This has always been lingering. 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," Hanks said.
"And I can tell you that there is discussions going on in all of the guilds, all of the agencies and all of legal firms in order to come up with the legal ramifications of my face and my voice – and everybody else's – being our intellectual property," he added.
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The self titled "black sheep" of the Hanks family
The recent question of AI in movies has been raised as one of the many talking points of this year's strike on Hollywood. Actors still haven't resolved their grievances with producers and studios, and many questions around the subject remain unanswered in an industry that is being overtaken by new technologies.
"If I wanted to, I could get together and pitch a series of seven movies that would star me in them in which I would be 32 years old, from now until kingdom come. Anybody can now recreate themselves at any age they are by way of AI or deepfake technology," Hanks said. "Because, look, I could be hit by a bus tomorrow, and that's it, but my performances can go on and on and on and on, and outside the understanding that it's been done with AI or deepfake, there will be nothing to tell you that it's not me and me alone. And it's going to have some degree of lifelike quality. And that certainly is an artistic challenge, but it's also a legal one."
Tom brings up some very interesting points that pundits and experts continue to tiptoe around. "This is a super attenuated version of that printing press. AI, deepfake, anything will be able to lie just as well as they can go ahead [and] be able [to] tell the truth.… Some people that are going to… put [a] huge stake in what is authentic and what is not. Just as there's going to be a ton of people that ain't going to care," he concluded.
