Deep fake of Bruce Willis in a Russian advertisement.

DeepCake Makes Deepfakes of Bruce Willis, Who Endorses His AI Reproduction

Earlier this year it was announced that Bruce Willis of the Die Hard movie fame had received a diagnosis with aphasia.   It was crushing news for his millions of fans worldwide. This neurological disorder removes the ability to communicate.  And this will certainly limit or end his time on screen. But will it? Willis has already been digitally cloned for an advertisement in Russia.

Essentially they pasted his face on another person’s body. Remember there is a lot of AI out the that can do that. You might recall the recent Anthony Bourdain deepfake video that had people enraged because it was being passed off as the actual Bourdain. It wasn’t.

But it may not be the last time we’ll see his mug on the silver screen — or in ads. According to reporting by The Telegraph, Willis has become the first living Hollywood actor to sell their rights to allow a “digital twin” to be used — and monetized — on screen.

The buyer, a U.S. firm called Deepcake, has already used its form of deepfake tech to render the 67-year-old actor’s digital twin in a phone ad last year for Russian telecom provider MegaFon.

Willis Was Pleased

Still, according to an article in futuriam.com, Willis had some nice things to say in a statement on the company’s website.

“I liked the precision of my character. It’s a great opportunity for me to go back in time. The neural network was trained on content of ‘Die Hard’ and ‘Fifth Element’, so my character is similar to the images of that time,” Willis said. With the advent of the modern technology, I could communicate, work and participate in filming, even being on another continent. It’s a brand new and interesting experience for me, and [I’m] grateful to our team.”

Even Disney used eerie CGI puppets to bring back Carrie Fisher and Peter Cushing, both of whom had already passed away.

Similarly, James Earl Jones, the iconic voice of Darth Vader, allowed for his deep baritones to be imitated by an AI, and you can bet Disney will be taking advantage of that for endless sequels and reboots to come. But for the sake of both actors and moviegoers: let’s not have our stars replaced by lifeless reconstructions.

Let’s wish long life to all our favorite entertainers. AI does many things, but it doesn’t clone the talent or replace how one feels when being entertained by a natural and much-loved celebrity

But they are really making progress with their ability to extend the careers of so many fading and aging stars.

read more at futurism.com