Tom Hanks: career can continue after death with AI – 05/17/2023 – Market

American actor Tom Hanks raised the possibility of his career continuing after his death using artificial intelligence.

The Forrest Gump and Cast Away star said technology could be used to recreate his likeness, ensuring he would continue to appear in films “from now until the end of time”.

But he acknowledged that using artificial intelligence poses artistic and legal challenges.

Hanks’ remarks come shortly after Briton Neil Tennant, lead singer of the iconic pop band Pet Shop Boys, said the technology could be used by artists in the process of composing music.

Hanks, 66, was asked about the legal issues of new technology on the latest episode of The Adam Buxton podcast (in English).

“The first time we made a movie that had a lot of our own data stored on a computer — literally what we look like — was a movie called The Polar Express.

“We saw it coming, we saw that there would be this ability to take ‘zeros’ and ‘ones’ from inside a computer and turn it into a face and a character. It’s only grown a billion times since then, and we see it in everyone. the places.”

The Polar Express, released in 2004, was the first fully animated film using digital motion capture technology.

Hanks said conversations are taking place in the film industry about how to protect actors from the effects of technology.

“I can tell you that there are discussions going on in every association, every agency and every law firm to get to the legal ramifications of my face and my voice and everyone else being our intellectual property,” added Hanks.

“What’s a genuine possibility right now is that if I wanted to, I could get together and release a seven-film series starring all of them, which would be 32 years from now until the end of time.”

“Anyone can now recreate themselves at any age through AI or deep fake technology. They could get hit by a bus tomorrow and that’s it, but the performances can go on and on and on.”

“And it will have some degree of realistic quality. It’s certainly an artistic challenge, but also a legal one.”

Similar technology was once used in the last Indiana Jones film, for which 80-year-old Harrison Ford was “rejuvenated” for the opening sequence.

The filmmakers sifted through archive footage of a younger Ford before combining it with new footage, creating the illusion of Indiana Jones in 1944.

Hanks acknowledged that technological developments could lead to an AI-generated version of himself appearing in movies he wouldn’t normally choose.

He said: “No doubt people will be able to say [que é IA], but the question is whether they will care. There are some people who won’t care, who won’t make that distinction.”

AI is also creating dilemmas for the music industry, dividing opinion over its use by artists.

A song created using the cloned voices of Drake and The Weeknd was pulled from streaming services last month, but pop singer Grimes has encouraged musicians to use her voice to make music.

Pet Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant told British magazine Radio Times that he was excited about the technology’s potential.

“There’s a song we wrote a chorus to in 2003 and never finished because I couldn’t think of the verses,” he said. “But now with AI, you input the parts you wrote, press the button and fill in the blanks. You can rewrite (the song), but it would be a tool.”