They offered their likeness to AI platforms—and regretted it

April 16, 2025

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They offered their likeness to AI platforms—and regretted it

South Korean actor Simon Lee was surprised when he noticed his likeness—at occasions as a gynecologist or a surgeon—getting used to advertise questionable well being cures on TikTok and Instagram.

He’s one among scores of people that have licensed their picture to AI advertising firms, after which ended up with the disagreeable shock of seeing themselves featured in deepfakes, doubtful adverts and even political propaganda.

"If it was a pleasant commercial, it could've been wonderful to me. However clearly it’s such a rip-off," he informed AFP, including that the phrases of his contract prevented him from getting the movies eliminated.

The end result was that he was left together with his digital clone advocating for lemon balm tea to drop extra pounds or ice baths to battle zits.

AI expertise—cheaper than filming actors, however extra sensible than a wholly AI-generated avatar—permits corporations to construct catalogues of digital fashions to seem in movies that largely promote services or products.

Solene Vasseur, a digital communications and AI guide, stated this new type of promoting was quick and low-cost in comparison with a real-life manufacturing.

Utilizing avatars can also be a means for manufacturers to "present that they're snug with the brand new instruments."

The tactic is fast and easy: half a day's taking pictures, a inexperienced display and a teleprompter.

The actor has to show totally different feelings, which can permit the synthetic intelligence to make the avatar say all types of issues, in an infinite variety of languages.

"The efficiency by way of the expressiveness of an actual human—voice, facial actions, physique language… remains to be superior to something AI can generate proper now," stated Alexandru Voica, head of company affairs at Synthesia, a UK-based trade chief.

To make a video, the platform's prospects simply have to pick a face, a language, a tone—reminiscent of severe or playful—and insert the script.

The entire course of comes at a modest worth: the ultra-basic model is free, whereas the professional model prices just a few hundred euros.

"Am I crossing a line?"

The contracts supply up to some thousand euros, relying on period and the way nicely an individual is thought.

However they are often full of authorized jargon and typically abusive clauses, and of their rush to make fast money, some individuals have discovered it arduous to totally perceive what they have been signing up for.

Such was the case of Adam Coy, a 29-year-old actor and director primarily based in New York, promoting his picture was a monetary choice.

In October 2024, he signed over the rights to his face and voice to MCM for $1,000 (885 euros), granting the corporate the usage of his avatar for one 12 months.

"If I used to be extra profitable, I really feel like I’d perhaps be capable to have the moral dialog with myself," he stated. "Is that this proper, or am I crossing a line by doing this?"

Just a few months later, his accomplice's mom got here throughout movies through which his digital clone claimed to come back from the long run and introduced disasters to come back.

None of that is forbidden by the contract, which solely prohibits use for pornographic functions, or in reference to alcohol and tobacco.

Coy described the expertise of watching his avatar as "surreal" and stated he initially thought he could be an animated avatar.

However "it's respectable cash for little work," he added.

Propaganda

British actor and mannequin Connor Yeates, who signed a three-year contract with Synthesia for 4,600 euros, additionally encountered an disagreeable shock in 2022.

On the time, he was sleeping on a buddy's couch, he informed British newspaper The Guardian in 2024.

"I don't have wealthy dad and mom and wanted the cash," he stated.

This appeared like a "good alternative."

However he then found that his picture had been used to advertise Ibrahim Traore, the president of Burkina Faso who took energy in a coup in 2022.

"Three years in the past, just a few movies slipped our content material moderation partly as a result of there was a niche in our enforcement for factually correct however polarizing kind of content material or movies with exaggerated claims or propaganda, for instance," stated Voica, head of company affairs at Synthesia.

The agency stated it has launched new procedures however different platforms have since appeared, some making use of a lot much less stringent guidelines.

An AFP journalist was capable of make an avatar from one among these platforms say outrageous issues.

"The purchasers I've labored with didn't absolutely perceive what they have been agreeing to on the time," stated Alyssa Malchiodi, a lawyer who makes a speciality of enterprise regulation.

"One main purple flag is the usage of broad, perpetual and irrevocable language that provides the corporate full possession or unrestricted rights to make use of a creator's voice, picture and likeness throughout any medium," she stated.

Contracts usually include clauses thought-about abusive, Malchiodi stated, reminiscent of worldwide, limitless, irrevocable exploitation, with no proper of withdrawal.

"Expertise is evolving quicker than courts or legislatures can reply," the lawyer stated.

"These will not be invented faces," she stated, calling for extra warning.

© 2025 AFP

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