South Korean actor Simon Lee was stunned when he saw his equality – several times as a gynecologist or a surgeon – used to promote suspicious health treatment on Tikokkok and Instagram.
He is one of the people who have licensed their image to AI marketing companies, and then ended with unpleasant surprises to see Deepfek, suspected advertisements or even political campaigning.
“If it was a good advertisement, it would have been fine for me. But obviously it’s a scam,” he told AFP, his contract conditions stopped him from removing the video.
As a result, he was advocating for lemon balm tea with his digital clone to reduce weight or ice bath to fight acne.
The AI technology-actors allow more realistic-firms to create a catalog of digital models that promote most of the products or services in the video that allows more realistic-firms to create more realistic-firms than the AI-rendered avatar.
A digital communication and AI consultant, Solen Vasasur, said that this new form of advertising was faster and cheaper than the production of real life.
Using avatars is “a way to show for brands that they are comfortable with new devices”.
The method is quick and straight: half a day of shooting, a green screen and a teleprompter.
The actor must display different emotions, which will allow artificial intelligence to say all kinds of things, which are in infinite number of languages.
Alexandroo Voca, a head of corporate affairs at Sinkandesia, a UK-based industry leader, said, “A real human-immortal, facial movements, performance in the context of the expression of body language … AI is still better.”
To make a video, the customers of the platform have to choose just a face, a language, a tone – such as severe or fickle – and insert the script.
The entire process comes to a modest price: Ultra-Basic version is free, while the cost of the Pro version is a few hundred euros.
‘Am I crossing a line?’
Contracts offer up to a few thousand euros, which is known on the basis of a period and how well a person is known.
But they can be filled with legal jargon and sometimes abusive segments, and in their crowd to make quick cash, some people are difficult to understand for whom they were signing up.
Such a 29 -year -old actor and an Adam Coy located in New York was a financial decision from selling his image.
In October 2024, he signed his face and voice rights to MCM for $ 1,000 (885 Euro), using its avatar to the company for one year.
“If I had been more successful, I think I will probably be able to have moral conversations with me,” he said. “Is it right, or am I crossing a line by doing so?”
A few months later, his partner’s mother came in the video, in which his digital clone claimed to come from the future and announced disasters.
None of these is prohibited by contract, which prohibits the use only for obscene purposes or in relation to alcohol and tobacco.
Cay described the experience of looking at his avatar as “real” and said that he initially thought he would be an animated avatar.
But “This is good money for less work”, he said.
To publicize
British actor and model Conner Yetse, who signed a three -year contract with synthesia for 4,600 euros, also suffered an unpleasant surprise in 2022.
At that time, he was sleeping on a friend’s couch, he told the British newspaper The Guardian in 2024.
“I do not have rich parents and need money,” he said.
It looked like a “good opportunity”.
But he then came to know that his image was used to promote Ibrahim Trair, president of Burkina Faso, who took power in the coup in 2022.
“Three years ago, some videos partially moved our content moderation because for example, there was a difference in our enforcement to polarize video with exaggerated types of materials or exaggerated claims or promotion.” The head of corporate affairs in synthesia said Voca.
The firm said that it has introduced new procedures, but other platforms have appeared since, some implement very few stringent rules.
An AFP journalist was able to create an avatar from one of these platforms, which says derogatory things.
“The customers I have worked with did not fully understand what they agreed at that time,” said Alyssa Malchodi, a lawyer, who specializes in business law.
“A major red flag is the use of a broad, always and irreversible language that gives the company a complete ownership or unrestricted rights to use a manufacturer’s voice, image and equality in any medium,” he said.
The contracts are often considered derogatory, such as Malchyodi said, such as unlimited, irreversible exploitation, no right to return.
The lawyer said, “Technology is growing faster than courts or assemblies.”
“These are not invented faces,” he said, calling for more caution.
(This story is not edited by NDTV employees and auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)