Tom Hanks might keep acting after death thanks to AI and Deepfakes
American actor Tom Hanks has commented on the increasing trend of using artificial technology and deep fakes to de-age actors.
“Anybody can now recreate themselves at any age they are by way of AI or deep fake technology,” Hanks said on the Adam Buxton Podcast. “I could be hit by a bus tomorrow and that’s it, but performances can go on and on and on and on. 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. That’s certainly an artistic challenge but it’s also a legal one.”
Hanks claimed that “all of the guilds, all of the agencies, and all of the legal firms” are currently trying to parse out “the legal ramifications of my face and my voice and everybody else’s being our intellectual property”.
“Without a doubt people will be able to tell [that it’s AI], but the question is will they care?” Hanks openly wondered. “There are some people that won’t care, that won’t make that delineation.”
Hanks is no stranger to AI technology, having been one of the first actors to appear in a major film utilising the technology. “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,” Hanks said. “We saw this coming, we saw that there was going to be this ability to take zeros and ones from inside a computer and turn it into a face and a character. That has only grown a billion-fold since then and we see it everywhere.”
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.