Don’t sully his name.
Tom Hanks, 67, took to Instagram on Sunday to warn followers that he was not involved in a promotional video for a dental plan that he says features an AI-generated version of himself.
“Beware!!” Hanks wrote within the caption of a photograph of his mysterious doppelgänger.
“There’s a video on the market promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me,” the message continued. “I actually have nothing to do with it.”
The Post reached out to Hanks’ reps for comment.
This shouldn’t be the primary time the “Forrest Gump” star, who was digitally de-aged in Robert Zemeckis’ upcoming film “Here,” has shared concerns about artificial intelligence.
During a May appearance on The Adam Buxton Podcast, the star spoke concerning the way forward for AI and its effect on showbiz.
“Anybody can now recreate themselves at any age they’re, by means of AI or deep fake technology… I could possibly be hit by a bus tomorrow and that’s it, but my performances can go on and on and on,” Hanks said, per The Hollywood Reporter.
“Outside of the understanding that it’s been done by AI or deep fake, there’ll be nothing to inform you that it’s not me and me alone, and it’s going to have some extent of lifelike quality,” he continued.
Hanks taped the podcast about three months before the July start of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
On-camera performers are demanding protections on the usage of AI and digital replicas.
The Writers Guild of America, which recently ended its strike after reaching a deal on a latest contract with entertainment corporations, sought to ban the usage of AI for writing and rewriting source material.
After all, Hanks isn’t the one celebrity who has spoken out about AI.
In June, Arnold Schwarzenegger claimed that the unreal intelligence world presented within the “Terminator” movies has “turn into a reality.”
“Today, everyone seems to be terrified of it, of where that is gonna go,” Schwarzenegger, 76, said concerning the state of AI during an event called, “An Evening With Arnold Schwarzenegger,” per People.
“And on this movie, in ‘Terminator,’ we talk concerning the machines becoming self-aware, they usually take over.”
The previous California governor also praised the film series’ director, James Cameron, for his “extraordinary” writing, noting that when the movie premiered in 1984, that they had “just scratched the surface” of AI.
“Now over the course of a long time, it has turn into a reality,” Schwarzenegger continued. “So it’s not any more fantasy or sort of futuristic. It’s here today. And so that is the extraordinary writing of Jim Cameron.”