Tom Hanks says AI version of him used in dental plan ad without his consent

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.

float,

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.

fne8w2ah,

That’s exactly why SAG-AFTRA are still striking rn.

bobman,

No it’s not.

WoahWoah,

They are being hyperbolic. It is pretty clearly and obviously related.

Ddhuud,

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.

Edgarallenpwn,
@Edgarallenpwn@midwest.social avatar

Dental plan

Chet needs braces

Dental plan

Chet needs braces

Dental plan

Chet needs braces

Ignisnex,
@Ignisnex@lemmy.world avatar

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.

AllonzeeLV, (edited )

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!

bobman,

Great reddit humor.

You’re so funny.

Cultural_Hope,
@Cultural_Hope@lemmy.world avatar

Dudesy Mugs

Cobrachickenwing,

Hanksvision just as 30 Rock envisioned it.

Kofad,

No no, that’s clealy Otm Shank.

yournamehere,

where is the link to the videos?

marker2002,

Found this site , but only shows clips, might not even be from the ad.

yournamehere,

thanks

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

As a famous celebrity who has to deal with this a lot, here is an easy guide to tell real celebrities accounts from fake celebrities accounts on the Internet: Ask yourself, would it make sense for the real celebrity to promote these product on social media?

  • Does it make sense for Academy Award winning character actor Tom Hanks to promote a random dental service? No, therefore, that is a fake account.
  • Does it make sense for pop superstar Taylor Swift to promote her latest re-recorded albums on her social media? Yes, therefore, that’s a real account.
  • Does it make sense for Academy Award nominated actress Margot Robbie to promote her latest movie on her first personal social media account in years? Yes, therefore, that’s a real account.
  • Does it make sense for Matt Damon, Tom Brady, or Kim Kardashian to promote cryptocurrency on their social media despite never showing any interest in technology before? No, therefore, these are fake accounts.
  • Does it make sense for Elon Musk, the richest man in the world in his 50s, to act like an immature middle schooler and post bad memes on the Internet to sell a cryptocurrency based on a dead meme? No, therefore, that’s a fake account.

This method works every time.

wolfpack86,

I appreciate that not only does Margot Robbie want to entertain me, she wants to educate me. True renaissance woman.

guacupado,

I didn’t see anything in the article about it, but is Tom Hanks not suing these people?

Does it make sense for Elon Musk, the richest man in the world in his 50s, to act like an immature middle schooler and post bad memes on the Internet to sell a cryptocurrency based on a dead meme? No, therefore, that’s a fake account.

This actually would make sense for someone like Elon Musk.

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

… That’s the joke. Dogecoin.

notatoad,

Does it make sense for Academy Award nominated actress Margot Robbie to promote her latest movie on her first personal social media account in years?

does it make sense for academy award nominated actress Margot Robbie to cross the picket line to promote the barbie movie on lemmy during the sag-aftra strike? yep, she’s well-known for her anti-union politics and general disdain for labour. therefore, this must be a real account.

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

If you have been following me here at all, you would know that I have been extremely vocal about my support of the strike here, and I have been keeping with the strike rules and only mentioned the name of the movie ONCE here after the strike started.

Your smug accusation only shows your own ignorance, while I do try to be nice here, I will not stand for you making light of our fight for survival as some kind of gotcha.

Now kindly fuck off.

Spaceinv8er,

Dune 2 was postponed because of the strike, and I was really looking forward to it.

I mean I’m REALLY looking forward to that movie, but if my minor inconvenience means a better standard of living/opportunity for a large amount of people I’ll wait for however long.

Sea_pop,

The Margot Robbie is Australian so this comment would have been written as ‘now kindly fuck off, cunt.’ Therefore, I am now questioning the legitimacy of this account.

Hi Margot!!

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

I learned that Americans get very offended at that word… it takes a lot of restraint.

Sea_pop,

Fair enough. You have always come across as a very thoughtful person.

millie,

Source for that? Because all I’m seeing is footage of her striking with SAG and pro-union comments she’s made online.

harpersbazaar.com/…/margot-robbie-sag-aftra-strik…

buzzfeed.com/…/margot-robbie-sag-aftra-strike-sup…

The attitude toward celebrities on Lemmy versus on Mastodon is really weird. Same thing with reddit, a lot of the time. Like, okay, I have no idea if that’s really Margot Robbie or not, but famous people do use the internet. Attention doesn’t make them a different species that forgets how to use keyboards or something.

Might as well be nice?

millie,

Hi Margot Robbie! <3

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

Hi! 💖

JonDavie,

Does it make sense for an internationally recognized actress to come into the Fediverse to explain too notch level critical thinking…hmm. Agree with the points - yep. Think it’s actually Margot Robbie - doubtful.

I’m just applying the above rules

nickwitha_k,

That’s the beautiful thing. It doesn’t really matter if she’s actually Margot Robbie.

If she isn’t, she’s a person (probably - AI/ML systems are really good at tricking us these days) that posts generally amusing, positive, and pro-labor things.

If she is Margot Robbie, then, she’s a person that posts generally amusing, positive, and pro-labor things, while also having been publicly recognized as being skilled and talented at her day job.

Either way, it’s someone that I’m glad is active on Lemmy.

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

New sincerity. :)

nickwitha_k,

That’s a phrase that I was unfamiliar with. Thank you!

soloner,

Does it make sense for Margot Robbie to point out what kind of accounts may be real or fake, including her own account in the example? Yes. Therefore it is a real account.

Thanks Margot!

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

You’re welcome, soloner. Now, would you guys help support our strike and the livelihood of the majority of actors by buying a shirt or a mug? Here’s your chance to look like a real celebrity.

sagaftra.org/official-sag-aftra-strike-swag-avail…

crashoverride,

Really dude? You think you that this is actually Margot? Lol hats off to you, youngster

NikkiDimes,

woosh 🤭

misanthropy,

No way you’re actually Margot, there’s no girls on the internet

growsomethinggood,

Somehow I don’t think you’re a reliable source on that, Miss Anthropy

Arcania85,

Seems to work 4/5 times if you ask me

Zink,

As intelligent as she is beautiful, folks!

mateomaui,

Matt Damon

unclear

wasn’t he famously roasted for being part of that Crypto.com ad?

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

That’s another joke. The other two for FTX and EthereumMax respectively.

mateomaui,

oh lol, I didn’t even get to Brady and Kardashian, was stumped on Damon, well played overall

ShustOne,
@ShustOne@lemmy.one avatar

People made fun of the ad and the lines he said but people also don’t understand that he didn’t write it. Crypto.com was already going to fail by the time their crazy expensive ad came out. Matt Damon on the other hand seems to be doing just fine.

mateomaui,

He’s an actor, so I don’t think anyone actually thought he wrote anything he said on that ad, but it was an endorsement, which is more difficult to parse whether or not he actually invested in or supported it. And, probably like most people, I didn’t care enough to read in depth about it afterward.

JustZ,

Cringey weirdo.

bobman,

Ask yourself why you care what celebrities are promoting in the first place.

Even if they are being ‘real’, odds are they were just paid to say good things about a product they never actually use to take advantage of idiots who can’t think for themselves.

TimewornTraveler,

I love that this account still exists

mindbleach,

The constant “wait, really?” seems deeply on-brand.

ThePantser,
@ThePantser@lemmy.world avatar

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/f6b972d2-6ace-470f-ba31-e3ed876d72f1.jpegSimpsons did it first.

sik0fewl,

That's just a fish combined with a light bulb.

magnetosphere,
magnetosphere avatar

There’s your answer, fishbulb.

flossdaily,

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.

Ataraxia,

They would fail. I have many ways to corroborate and they know I don’t answer the phone and to call 911. Nobody is calling me in a emergency ever. I don’t drive, I don’t give money to anyone etc… People need to have the policy of if you can make a call and it’s an emergency then call 911. Also always have roadside assistance.

LedgeDrop,

… Or you just have a word/phrase known between yourself and the other person.

collegefurtrader,

Great, now we need a safe word just to talk on the phone

Risk,

Mine is pineapples. What’s yours?

collegefurtrader,

Nice try

Fedizen,

12345 same as my luggage code

Risk,

Weird, I thought it was hunter2.

doktorseven,

Chariots chariots

flossdaily,

Yes. I highly recommend your set one up today.

helio,

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…

Kalkaline,
@Kalkaline@leminal.space avatar

Probably a good idea to come up with a code word or something for verifying it’s you.

KazuyaDarklight,
@KazuyaDarklight@lemmy.world avatar

And/or for signs of being under duress.

clegko,
@clegko@lemmy.world avatar

Or just text the other person on the d/l to see whats up.

camr_on,
@camr_on@lemmy.world avatar

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

drdalek,

I read something recently that said a study was performed and Teens are most susceptible to getting scammed online.

Laticauda,

I’m guessing that’s because of sheer numbers, there are going to be more teens online than any other demographic.

clegko,
@clegko@lemmy.world avatar

Its because their brains are still developing. As they get older, they’ll gain more common sense (hopefully)

DrM,

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.

Rai,

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.

Seraphin,
@Seraphin@pawb.social avatar

Do you have a recorded voicemail greeting? There are techniques now to train an AI voice on as little as 3 seconds of audio.

Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6HSsVIkqIU

Rai,

Naaah I use the default, but that’s interesting!

Rai,

I’m watching the whole thing now

Holy dick

flossdaily, (edited )

I’m sorry, but your 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.

guacupado,

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.

deeroh,

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.

flossdaily,

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.

Fedizen,

winning by not answering my phone ever

bobman,

And the answer is to get off the internet and start trusting those close to you more than digital strangers.

HeartyBeast,
HeartyBeast avatar

Waiting for the inevitable person to come along in a minute saying "IT's nOT StEaLING - thAT MeaNs To TAKe SomeTHIng. hE STill hAS HIS LIKENESS!"

treefrog,

Is using an actor’s likeness without their permission copyright infringement?

BraveSirZaphod,
BraveSirZaphod avatar

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.

ogeist,

Granted but impersonation is also a crime, is it not?

BraveSirZaphod,
BraveSirZaphod avatar

When used for fraud, absolutely. But it can also be used for parody and satire, which is strongly constitutionally protected as free speech.

A case like this is pretty open and shut since it's a blatant scam, but what if it was simply a fake Tom Hanks saying political statements he disagrees with? Would someone be able to argue parody? Probably not successfully, but there is a blurry line there. What if you simply had to include a disclaimer that it's AI generated? Would all content be allowable in that case?

FatCrab,

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.

anewbeginning,

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.

Gradenko,

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.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_Shemp

cyborganism,

Tom Hanks and some woman going

DENTAL PLAN!

Lisa needs braces!

DENTAL PLAN!

Lisa needs braces!

DENTAL PLAN!

Lisa needs braces!

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