WEBVTT

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- In an announcement
straight out of Black Mirror,

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last week, actor Bruce Willis

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appeared to have sold
the rights to his face

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to a Russian tech company.

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The company is called Deepcake

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and they specialize in creating deepfakes,

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see what they did there?

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A deepfake is basically a
digital model of a person's face

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that can basically be
plastered over someone else's.

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Deepcake and Willis previously
collaborated in 2021

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on a Russian phone ad,

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and reports last week revealed
that Willis and Deepcake

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had come to an agreement

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that would allow the
company to use Willis' face.

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Except apparently that deal doesn't exist.

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An article from The Hollywood
Reporter broke the news

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that Willis' representatives confirmed

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that a deal with Deepcake isn't real.

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They told me in an email, quote,

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"Please know that Bruce has
no partnership or agreement

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with this Deepcake company," end quote.

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Well, Deepcake's publicist
told The Hollywood Reporter

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that rights to Willis' digital-likeness

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cannot be sold at all.

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The company further said
that any future deepfaking

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of Willis would be completely up to him.

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Deepcake did not return our request

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for comment on the matter.

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(Kevin claps hands)

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Story's over.

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This whole intersection
of artificial intelligence

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and Hollywood is actually as interesting

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as it is completely dystopian.

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James Earl Jones actually sold his voice

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to a Ukrainian company called Respeecher

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which would recreate his iconic
performance as Darth Vader.

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- [Darth Vader] No!

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- In creepier news,
there's reports out there

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that say that James Dean
will be starring in a movie

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called "Finding Jack",

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which is supposed to be a
Vietnam era action movie.

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Just FYI, James Dean died in 1955

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and will be digitally
resurrected to star in the film.

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(squelching)

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But this isn't necessarily a new practice.

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Who could forget the way Paul Walker

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was digitally inserted in
"Furious 7" following his death?

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It's not exactly a deepfake,
but its pretty damn close.

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I don't know about you

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but I feel a little icky watching a movie

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with a deepfake of someone

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that actually hasn't been alive in years.

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Let's hope it doesn't get that far.

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To read more about this
story, check out Gizmodo.com.