Bruce Willis has denied reports that he’d licensed the use of his image to a deepfake company, after formally announcing his retirement earlier in the year.Last week, the Daily Mail reported that Willis sold his likeness to Deepcake – a Russian company specialising in AI-powered content optimisation – shortly before he learned of his aphasia diagnosis.
The actor’s condition was made public back in March, when a statement confirming it was shared alongside the news that Willis would retire from the film industry after 44 years.In their report, the Daily Mail claimed that Willis’ digital likeness had been licensed for use in future film projects, though his estate would have the final say in what projects it appeared in.
A representative for the actor has now denied that, telling the BBC that Willis has “no partnership or agreement” with Deepcake – a claim the company itself has also verified.Willis and Deepcake had indeed partnered last year, though: using a neural network trained on assets from his roles in Die Hard and Fifth Element, the tech upstart developed a digital recreation of Willis’ younger self, and that was used to have him “star” in an ad for Russian telecom Megafon.
Russian firm Deepcake used an authorized deepfake of the Bruce Willis in the commercial for telecoms company Megafon. The company uses an artificial neural network to impose Willis' image onto the face of a Russian actor pic.twitter.com/7bizoLsk2S— Reuters (@Reuters) September 22, 2021On Deepcake’s website, Willis is quoted as saying: “I liked the precision of my character.
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