Tom Hanks queries AI self - 30th Oct 2023

After seeing his own likeness featuring in a dental plan ad, Oscar award-winning actor Tom Hanks has been posing the question, "When is Tom Hanks not Tom Hanks?” The star received no financial reimbursement for the commercial, made no legal contract sanctioning the use of his image, and he certainly didn't set foot in any recording studio.

The Tom Hanks starring in the commercial was generated thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), a matter of burgeoning concern to both actors and presenters. Host of 'Good Morning America' Gayle King has criticised an advert employing a deepfake version of herself, targeted at selling slimming tablets. Internet trolls have hijacked Trump's, Biden's and Obama's voices to participate in Minecraft, and there are numerous instances where propaganda and misinformation have been widely disseminated.

Over the long course of his acting career, Hanks has frequently had recourse to technological means to artificially enhance or transform himself. In 2004, 'The Polar Express' computer-animated movie photographed Hanks’face to concoct a digital animation version. Just last year, Hanks played the leading role in the film 'A Man Named Otto', where – courtesy of AI – he was de-aged for particular scenes.

The unauthorised employment of their body or voice is what artists take issue with, and in a recent podcast interview, Hanks warned that a virtual Tom Hanks could perform in perpetuity. "I could be hit by a bus tomorrow, and that's it, but performances can go on and on … And outside of the understanding that it's been done with AI or deepfake, there'll be nothing to tell you that it's not me.”

Such is the acting community's apprehension, that this year both the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) have taken strike action over AI encroachment and over salaries.

Whilst we can assume that the actual Tom Hanks won't be selling you a dental care package any time soon, in his forthcoming movie, the superstar will again be knowingly availing himself of AI to de-age himself.

The question on the audiences' lips might be, "Is that genuinely Hanks on screen?"