Why Some Celebrities Embrace Artificial Intelligence Deepfakes

Singaporean actress, model and former radio DJ Jamie Yeo has no problem being deepfakes. In fact, she signed up for it.

“It’s a bit like a ‘Black Mirror’ episode with Salma Hayek,” jokes Yeo.

She told the BBC a day after the release of the new series of Charlie Brooker’s Netflix show. In her first episode, actress Salma Hayek plays her fictional self and contracts her image of herself to her production company.

The deal allows artificial intelligence or AI-generated deepfake versions of Hollywood A-listers to be used to “star” new TV dramas. Everything she says and does on the show is controlled by a computer.

The result for Hayek, without spoiling the story, is not good.

Concerns about the impact of AI are also behind the first Hollywood actor strike in more than 40 years that brought the US film and television business to a standstill.

This comes after the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) failed to reach an agreement in the United States to strengthen protections against AI abuse for its members.

“Artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to the creative profession,” the Actors Guild warned as it prepares to pursue the issue in full force.

But Mr. Yo is not worried. She has more and more celebrities embracing AI-generated ads, but she’s the one.

New technologies are greeted with a mixture of excitement and anxiety.

Yeo just signed a deal with financial technology firm Hugosave that will allow her digitally rendered likeness to be used to sell content.

The process is pretty easy. She spends several hours in front of Greene’s screen capturing her own face and movements, and then spends another few hours recording her own voice in her studio.

An AI program then synchronizes the images and sounds to create a digital alter-ego that can speak virtually anything. The results are astonishing.

“I understand the concern, but this technology will live on,” she says. “So even if you’re afraid to accept it, there will be others who will accept it.”

Some already have. As part of his deal with PepsiCo, superstar soccer player Lionel Messi allowed PepsiCo to use a deepfake version of himself to promote Ray’s Crisp.

Online users can not only create a personalized video message from ‘Lionel Messi’, but also deliver the message in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish.

“Deepfakes will become a normal part of the advertising industry in the next few years,” said Dr Kirk Prunger, a marketing expert at King’s College London.

“It opens the door to all sorts of creative options. It can be highly targeted to consumers and often very compelling.”

The efficiency of the process is also attractive from a commercial point of view.

“We don’t do a lot of work for the money we’re being charged,” Yeo said.

“It’s also good for clients on a tight budget because you get a lot more content than a normal shoot, so it works for everyone.”

The client (in this case Singapore-based Hugosave) also agrees to this.

“The availability of this technology means that we can literally produce hundreds of videos in a matter of days, compared to months, if not years, of capturing content using traditional methods. Compare that to ,” says Braham Djidjelli. Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Hugosave.

“We can take advantage of AI while still maintaining the human touch of a trusted local face, in this case Jamie.”

But as analysts like Dr. Prunger point out, the technology has a “dark side.”

“You can’t put it back in the box,” he says. “The advertising industry needs to wake up not only to the potential but also to the risks of artificial intelligence. It is about taking a step back as a society and considering what are the appropriate or ethical uses of this technology. means.”

One of the things Dr. Prunger refers to is the impending “crisis of trust” where consumers can no longer tell what is real and what is fake. It is already being exploited by vested interests online, with everything from synthetically manipulated porn to misinformation to political messages.

This week’s BBC News focuses on AI, how its technology impacts our lives, and how it may impact us in the near future.

But there are also more real risks for talents who voluntarily enroll themselves in deepfakes. At this time, there are no clear AI-related laws to adequately protect images.

For example, what if a brand uses your digital avatar to endorse a product that might tarnish your image, or your alter ego tells a tasteless joke?

“We are in uncharted territory when it comes to AI and deepfake technology,” said Tan Sheng Loong, an intellectual property attorney at Singapore-based Rajah & Tan.

“So many issues can arise. Who owns the intellectual property? Who do you seek legal recourse from? does not provide a strong enough regulatory framework for

This could be the last hurdle for advertisers before buying the digital rights to, say, a Hollywood celebrity.

Yeo said she was well aware of the risks at this early stage, but said her decision was largely dictated by her faith in both Hugosave and the way business is done in Singapore.

But in the end, she says, it’s all about staying ahead of the curve.

“If you still want to be in the game, you have to learn how to be in the game, because if you’re not, you should probably just retire.”