Tom Hanks Backtracks On Appreciation Of AI After Dental Ad Scam

Tom Hanks has cautioned fans about a deceptive dental plan advertisement featuring his likeness.

The occurrence comes months after the award-winning actor voiced concerns about the use of AI in the entertainment industry. Despite that, he hasn't refrained from endorsing digitally altered representations of himself in movies.

Keep reading to learn more about the situation.

Tom Hanks has warned his 9.5 million followers, advising them not to be deceived by an ad that seems to feature his face but, according to him, employs an unauthorized AI version of himself.

He posted a screenshot from the video, displaying a computer-generated image that resembled a younger version of the comedic star, dressed in a black suit and matching shirt. Over the still shot, he wrote:

"BEWARE!! There’s a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me. I have nothing to do with it."

Although the post has accrued over 100k likes, the two-time Oscar winner’s followers had no opportunity to share their opinions due to his disabling the comments section.

The last time the fourth-highest-grossing actor in North America talked about AI was in May when he appeared on an episode of "The Adam Buxton Podcast." During his appearance, the “Forrest Gump” actor engaged in a thought-provoking conversation about the future of filmmaking and the evolving role of AI in the industry.

The "Angels & Demons" star pointed out the 2004 film, "The Polar Express" as a pivotal moment for AI in Hollywood. Disclosing that a substantial amount of data, including the actors' appearances, was digitally captured and incorporated into the film, Hanks stated:

"We saw this coming. We saw that there was going to be this ability in order to take zeros and ones inside a computer and turn it into a face and a character. Now, that has only grown a billion-fold since then, and we see it everywhere."

The 67-year-old actor delved deeper into the implications of this technological shift, emphasizing its inevitable influence on actors' contracts. He also revealed that there were deliberations among industry guilds, agencies, and legal firms regarding the legal complexities associated with using an actor's likeness and voice as their intellectual property.

"What is a bona fide possibility right now, if I wanted to, [is] 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," he explained.

Hanks further pondered the possibility that his performances will persist indefinitely, expressing, "I could be hit by a bus tomorrow, and that's it, but performances can go on and on and on and on."

Prior to the Playtone founder's deepfake experience, actor Robin Williams' daughter, Zelda, had expressed her discomfort with the use of AI to recreate her late father's voice, deeming it "personally disturbing." 

The issue had come up as part of the "Nine Months" child star's take on the ongoing dispute between the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists [SAG-AFTRA] and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Per Daily Mail, she shared a lengthy note via her Instagram Story, writing: 

"I've witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these [AI] models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad. I've already heard AI used to get his "voice" to say whatever people want and while I find it personally disturbing, the ramifications go far beyond my own feelings."

Since one of the significant reasons for the SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America [WGA] strikes is workers seeking protection from AI, Zelda passionately continued:

"This isn't theoretical, it is very very real. 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."

The producer then concluded that "These recreations are, at their very best, a poor facsimile of greater people, but at their worst, a horrendous Frankensteinian monster, cobbled together from the worst bits of everything this industry is, instead of what it should stand for."