Tom Hanks warns fans against a dental ad featuring an AI-generated image of the actor

New Delhi

Hollywood star Tom Hanks has warned fans about an ad for a dental plan that has allegedly used Artficial Intelligence to create his image. Hanks posted a message on Instagram stating that the ad appears to feature him but in fact, is fake. 

In a message posted to his 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 the ad that seemingly features him.

Time and again, the veteran actor has expressed concerns about the increased usage of AI in film and TV. Hanks though has allowed makers to digitally alter versions of himself in films. 

The 2004 computer-animated Christmas fantasy The Polar Express featured a CGI version of Hanks. He was also digitally de-aged for scenes in 2022 film A Man Called Otto.

Speaking with British comedian Adam Buxton on his podcast on 18 April, just days before the start of the Hollywood writers’ strike, Hanks said of AI, “We saw this coming. 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.

“I can tell you that there (are) discussions going on in all of the guilds, all of the agencies, and all of the legal firms to come up with the legal ramifications of my face and my voice – and everybody else’s – being our intellectual property.

“Right now 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.”

The US writers’ strike ended last week, where the Writers Guild of America approved an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television on restrictions on how AI can be used in film and TV.

However, SAG-AFTRA – the union representing Hollywood actors – remains on strike, as a result, most production houses cannot resume work just yet.  The actors’ strike began a few months after the writers’ strike, with pay, as well as concern over the use of AI in generating unapproved likenesses of actors.