Bruce Willis goes out for some coffee with a friend on Monday (October 17) in Santa Monica, Calif.
03.10.2022 - 12:31 / foxnews.com
A deepfake of Bruce Willis sparked widespread confusion about AI technology and legal rights online - prompting the retired actor's agent to confirm that Willis did not sell the rights to his digital likeness. According to Reuters, a Russian firm called Deepcake created a realistic AI-generated image of Bruce Willis in a commercial for Megafon, a Russian telecoms company, in 2021.
Deepcake imposed Willis's face onto a Russian actor's head by using neural network technology – a year before the actor retired. Rumors recently emerged that Willis "sold" his likeness to the company to continue acting amid his aphasia diagnosis.Though Willis did authorize the deepfake, his representatives confirmed that he did not "sell the rights" to his face.
"Please know that Bruce has no partnership or agreement with this Deepcake company," Willis’s agent said in a statement to the BBC. The hyper-realistic image of Bruce Willis is actually a deepfake created by a Russian company using artificial neural networks. (Deepcake via Reuters) Rumors about Willis "acting" through deepfakes offered some readers a glimpse into the potential that AI technology could provide.
After Willis announced he would be ‘stepping away’ away from acting due to his aphasia diagnosis, journalists speculated that the deepfake could allow Willis to "act" in films without actually acting. But a representative for Deepcake disputed the idea that one could even sell the rights to their likeness.
Bruce Willis goes out for some coffee with a friend on Monday (October 17) in Santa Monica, Calif.
Bruce Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, posted a sweet recap of what her family was up to this summer. In the reel, set to the song "Bones" by Maren Morris, Willis can be seen hanging out with his wife and daughters, 10-year-old Mabel and 8-year-old Evelyn.
Bruce Willis' family is looking back on a «magic» summer with the actor following his aphasia diagnosis earlier this year. In a video shared to Instagram on Sunday, the actor's wife, Emma Heming Willis, shared a compilation of summer memories, featuring Bruce and their two daughters, Mabel, 10 and Evelyn, 8.The sweet family video, set to Maren Morris' «Bones,» sees Bruce goofing off with his girls, enjoying walks in the woods and sharing a kiss with his wife.
Bruce Willis and John Travolta will appear as rivals in their new action movie "Paradise City." In the film's trailer, which was released Wednesday, Willis plays a bounty hunter who is getting a little too old for the job but agrees to take on the extremely difficult and dangerous assignment to take down a crime lord in Hawaii, played by Travolta. After Willis’ character is thought to have died on the job, his son, played by Blake Jenner, teams up with his dad’s former partner, Stephen Dorff, to get revenge on those they believe carried out the killing.Their task is made all the more difficult because they still have to deal with Travolta’s character. This is the first time Travolta and Willis have worked together since first pairing up in 1994 for the Quentin Tarantino classic "Pulp Fiction." Travolta played a hitman in the film, and Willis played an aging boxer who killed Travolta’s character.They played two of the film's three protagonists.
Zack Sharf Bruce Willis did not sell his rights to a deepfake studio, despite reports of the contrary that recently went viral online. The Telegraph reported at the end of Sept. that Willis made history as “the first Hollywood star to sell his rights to allow a ‘digital twin’ of himself to be created for use on screen.” While a “digital twin” of Willis was created by the deepfake company Deepcake to be used in an advertisement for the Russian telecoms company MegaFon, Deepcake does not own the rights to Willis’ image or to his “digital twin.” Willis’ representative confirmed to Variety that “there is no partnership or agreement that exists between Bruce and Deepcake.” A spokesperson for Deepcake told Variety the same, adding, “The rights to Bruce Willis’ image [and] to his Digital Twin belong to Bruce Willis and to him only.”
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.
Accept no imitation! Bruce Willis denied reports that he sold the rights to his likeness to a deepfake company that would purportedly be creating a digital double of him to appear in future films.
Only Bruce Willis has the rights to Bruce Willis’s face, it transpires.
Bruce Willis‘ rep is speaking out after a recent report claimed that the actor had sold his digital likeness to Deepcake, a deepfake company.
Bruce Willis retired from acting. The seasoned actor shared that he was diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder that affects his ability to communicate. He recently sold his likeness to Deepcake, an AI platform that might result in there being new content with his image.The reason why Bruce Willis continued working after his aphasia diagnosisDemi Moore says she feels more alive and present than ever ahead of her 60th birthdayA post shared by Demi Moore (@demimoore)The news was reported by the Daily Mail, which claims that Deepcake was able to create a “digital twin” of Willis.