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Bruce Willis denies selling the rights to his face to a Russian deepfake company

October 3, 2022

A Bruce Willis deepfake has sparked widespread confusion over AI technology and legal rights online – prompting the retired actor’s agent to confirm Willis hadn’t sold the rights to his digital likeness .

According to Reuters, a Russian company called Deepcake created a realistic AI-generated image of Bruce Willis in an advertisement for Megafon, a Russian telecommunications company, in 2021. Deepcake imposed Willis’ face on an actor’s head Russian using neural network technology – a year before the actor retired.

Rumors recently emerged that Willis “sold” his likeness to the company to continue acting despite being diagnosed with aphasia. Although Willis authorized the deepfake, his representatives confirmed that he had not “sold the rights” to her face.

“Please know that Bruce has no partnership or agreement with this Deepcake company,” Willis’ agent said in a statement to the BBC.

BRUCE WILLIS’ WIFE EMMA TALKS GRIEF FOLLOWING HIS DIAGNOSIS OF APHASIA

The hyper-realistic image of Bruce Willis is actually a deepfake created by a Russian company using artificial neural networks.
(Deepcake via Reuters)

Rumors of Willis “acting” through deepfakes have offered some readers a glimpse of the potential that AI technology could hold. After Willis announced he would be “stepping away” from acting due to his aphasia diagnosis, reporters speculated that the deepfake could allow Willis to “act” in movies without actually acting.

But a representative from Deepcake disputed the idea that one could even sell the rights to their image.

“The wording on the rights is wrong…Bruce could not sell any rights to anyone, they are his by default,” the spokesperson told the BBC, adding that Willis had simply given “his consent (and a lot of material ) to make his Digital Double.”

According to Deepcake’s website, Willis reportedly praised the company’s work on AI as an opportunity to “go back in time.”

BRUCE WILLIS CONTINUED TO WORK AFTER APHASIA DIAGNOSIS BECAUSE HE ‘WANTED’, SAYS LAWYER

Bruce Willis attends the Comedy Central Roast of Bruce Willis at Hollywood Palladium on July 14, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.
(Rich Fury/Getty Images)

“With the advent of modern technology, I could communicate, work and participate in filming, even while being on another continent,” Willis reportedly said, according to Deepcake.

“It’s a great opportunity for me to go back in time. The neural network was trained on content from ‘Die Hard’ and ‘Fifth Element’, so my character is similar to images from that era,” explains the communicated.

The 67-year-old’s family announced his diagnosis of aphasia, which impairs his cognitive abilities and renders him incapacitated, earlier this summer.

Bruce Willis arrives for the National Board of Review Gala in the Manhattan borough of New York on January 6, 2015.
(Reuters)

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“We wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has had health issues and was recently diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities,” the family statement read. “As a result and with great consideration, Bruce is stepping away from the career that meant so much to him.”