'Shocked' to discover AI version of himself advertising falsely

Korean actor Simon Lee was “shocked” to discover his face was appearing all over TikTok and Instagram promoting medical products of unknown origin.

He is one of dozens of actors who have signed contracts to allow artificial intelligence (AI) companies to use their images and voices, only to find their faces now “living another life,” being misused for false advertising and even political propaganda.

“If it was a legitimate advertisement, I wouldn’t mind,” Simon Lee said. “But this is clearly a scam.” However, he couldn’t ask for the video to be removed because he had signed a contract.

As a result, “AI Simon Lee” is selling everything from lemon tea for weight loss to ice water for acne treatment – ​​methods that experts have seriously questioned about their scientific validity.

Without the need for complex 3D models or expensive special effects, companies today use hybrid avatar technology - that is, taking the image and voice of a real person, then editing it with AI to create new videos according to different scenarios - multi-language, multi-emotional, multi-content.

Mr. Alexandru Voica - representative of Synthesia (UK) - said that "real human expressions - from voice, facial expressions to body language - are still much better than AI," but that's why "borrowing a real human face" makes the audience feel more convincing.

Customers only need to choose the face, tone (happy or serious…), language and content to convey, the AI ​​system will take care of the rest. The basic service package is provided for free, while the professional package is only a few hundred USD - much cheaper than filming for real.

In need of money, many people have sold their image and voice rights without fully understanding the legal terms involved.

Young actor Adam Coy (29 years old) in New York (USA) once sold the rights to use his image and voice to an AI company for 1,000 USD within 1 year. Then, his girlfriend was shocked to see "Adam from the future" appear in a video predicting the end of the world. But the contract that Adam and many others signed did not prohibit this, but only prohibited pornography, alcohol, and tobacco.

Similarly, Connor Yeates, a British model and actor, signed a three-year contract with Synthesia in 2022, worth more than $4,600. But unexpectedly, his face was later used for political purposes.

Synthesia later acknowledged that there had been a loophole in its censorship of “controversial or propaganda” content, and said it had tightened its censorship. However, many new AI platforms on the market today have much looser controls.

According to attorney Alyssa Malchiodi, these contracts often include clauses such as: worldwide, unlimited, irrevocable, and the seller has no right to object after signing. “Technology is moving faster than the law and the judicial system can keep up,” she warns.

In the age of AI, the human face - something that was once private and easy to control - has become a commodity that can be bought, sold, edited and manipulated easily. For just a few hundred dollars, a "digital copy" can live a completely different life while the original - a real person - is helpless./.

(Vietnam News Agency/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/choang-vang-khi-phat-hien-phien-ban-ai-cua-chinh-minh-quang-cao-sai-su-that-post1033472.vnp