A video featuring a string of celebrities wearing an anti-Kanye West t-shirt is going viral, but it isn’t what it seems. And star Scarlett Johansson is not at all happy about it.
The video features celebrities including David Schwimmer, Steven Spielberg, Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, Scarlett Johansson, Sacha Baron Cohen, and more, but despite their faces appearing in the video, none of the celebrities actually participated in its creation. That is because the entire video is a deep fake created by artificial intelligence tools.
The purpose of the ad, created by Israeli generative AI expert Ori Bejerano, is to blast rapper and fashion mogul Kanye West as an antisemite. Each of the “celebrities” in the ad are wearing a white t-shirt with Kanye’s name underneath a drawing of a hand with its middle finger up and flipping the bird.
However, none of the famous personages had anything to do with the viral video. It is all computer generated.
Some of the celebrities in the faked ad have spoken out about Kanye. Just this week, for instance, Friends star David Schwimmer went public and urged X chief Elon Musk to ban West from the social media platform because of his antisemitic posts.
But whether or not these celebrities agree with the anti-Kanye sentiment or not, none of them appear to have been contacted by Bejerano for permission to appear in this deep fake protest video. And Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson, for one, is not at all pleased with her face appearing in the video.
Johansson sent a statement to People magazine protesting her inclusion.
“It has been brought to my attention by family members and friends, that an A.I.-generated video featuring my likeness, in response to an antisemitic view, has been circulating online and gaining traction,” she told the magazine.
“I am a Jewish woman who has no tolerance for antisemitism or hate speech of any kind. But I also firmly believe that the potential for hate speech multiplied by A.I. is a far greater threat than any one person who takes accountability for it,” she said.
“We must call out the misuse of A.I., no matter its messaging, or we risk losing a hold on reality,” the star continued.
“I have unfortunately been a very public victim of A.I., but the truth is that the threat of A.I. affects each and every one of us,” she said.
“It is terrifying that the U.S. government is paralyzed when it comes to passing legislation that protects all of its citizens against the imminent dangers of A.I,” Johansson exclaimed. “I urge the U.S. government to make the passing of legislation limiting A.I. use a top priority; it is a bipartisan issue that enormously affects the immediate future of humanity at large.”
Johansson has, indeed, been a very public target of AI. In 2023 she sued the maker of a video that used her likeness without permission. And last year she blasted OpenAI for offering a voice program that sounded suspiciously like her own voice.
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