American actor Tom Hanks and TV presenter Gayle King alerted their fans to the circulation of two promotional advertisements that use their likenesses and voices thanks to artificial intelligence techniques, without their permission.
On Saturday, Hanks wrote on his Instagram page: “Beware! There is a video clip circulating promoting dental insurance, using an artificial intelligence version of me. I have nothing to do with it.” Hanks posted a screenshot of the video clip in question.
As for Gayle King, who co-hosts the morning show on the American CBS channel, he posted a similar warning on Monday on Instagram as well.
“People keep sending me this video and asking me questions about this product, even though I have absolutely nothing to do with this company...” he wrote in a comment on a video in which he appears to be promoting a weight loss product.
King also posted the original video on which the scammers were based, in which he was promoting a radio show on August 31.
He added, “They manipulated my voice and video to make it seem like I was promoting this product... I have never heard of this product nor have I ever used it!” He concluded: “Do not fall into the trap of these videos based on artificial intelligence...”
The video Gayle referred to was posted by a user named Artipet, but searches on Instagram and Google yield no results mentioning these diet products.
For years, artificial intelligence has made it possible to resort to "deep fakes", that is, manipulating images and sounds, to make their owners say or do things that did not happen in reality.
These deep fakes were not convincing at first, but they have become very realistic with the emergence of generative artificial intelligence, which allows the production of content of all kinds, including video, based on a simple request in everyday language.