Tom Hanks warns of dental plan ad using fake 'AI version of me'

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Tom Hanks is warning fans he had “nothing to do with” an artificial intelligence version of himself that is promoting “some dental plan.”

“Beware!!” he wrote on Instagram over a screen shot of the apparent ad. “There’s a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me. I have nothing to do with it.”

The use of artificial intelligence has become a lightening rod in the ongoing actors’ strike with the use of CGI to create onscreen performances a heavily contested point in negotiations between artists and the studios.

Hanks recently sounded off on AI advancements in the entertainment industry in an interview on the Adam Buxton Podcast when he spoke about the early use of the technology in his 2004 animated film The Polar Express.

“We saw this coming. We saw that there was going to be this ability to take 0s and 1s inside a computer and turn it into a face and a character. Now, that is only grown a billion-fold since then, and we see it everywhere,” the two-time Oscar winner said.

“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.”

Knowing that the possibility of his likeness being used in the future could come to pass, Hanks wondered if audiences would even mind knowing that the performance wasn’t “real.”

“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.”

Meanwhile, Robin Williams’ daughter Zelda took to Instagram to sound the alarm over AI recreations of her late father.

“I am not an impartial voice in SAG’s fight against AI,” Zelda wrote on Instagram. “I’ve witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad. This isn’t theoretical, it is very very real.”

Calling the advances “disturbing,” she said she has “already heard AI used to get his ‘voice’ to say whatever people want.”

“Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices, to voice cartoons, to put their HUMAN effort and time into the pursuit of performance,” she said.

Likewise, Tim Burton recently blasted AI recreations of his directing style by comparing them to “robots taking your humanity,” while John Cusack accused Hollywood studios of running a “criminal enterprise” with the tech, adding, “Studios wanna have extras work one day, scan them – own their likeness forever – and eliminate them from the business.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com

X:@markhdaniell