Scarlett Johansson launches legal action in a case of AI imitating life imitating art

pcgamer.com:

Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson has launched legal action against an AI app that used her name and an AI likeness in an online advert, needless to say without permission. This is particularly ironic given that one of Johansson's most memorable roles was in the excellent 2013 film Her, where she voices an AI virtual assistant called Samantha that protagonist Theodore falls in love with.

First reported by Variety, the 22-second ad has now unsurprisingly disappeared. It was for an image-generating app called Lisa AI: 90s Yearbook & Avatar, and per Variety began with a (genuine) clip of Johansson behind-the-scenes while playing Black Widow. «What’s up guys,» says Johansson, «It’s Scarlett and I want you to come with me…» before the ad transitions into AI-generated photos closely resembling the actor and an AI Johansson voice starts promoting the app, ending with the line «I think you shouldn’t miss it».

The ad did have some small print saying «Images produced by Lisa AI. It has nothing to do with this person.» That doesn't seem like any sort of mitigation really, though Lisa AI's developer Convert Software is hardly alone in doing this. AI-based celebrity fakes are getting ever-more widespread on social media and even mega A-listers like Tom Hanks have fallen victim to such shenanigans: Hanks was recently forced to deny endorsing a dental plan that used an AI version of him in its marketing, though is yet to sue.

«I could be hit by a bus tomorrow, and that’s it, but performances can go on and on and on and on,» said Hanks of the technology. «And outside of the understanding that it’s been done with AI or deepfake, there’ll be nothing to tell you that it’s not me and me alone. And it’s going to have some degree of lifelike