Another AI developer is at the receiving end of a lawsuit after using a famous person's likeness without their consent. It's already becoming a common theme for AI apps to use famous people to advertise their products, but unlike others, Scarlett Johansson will not simply speak out to clarify that she had nothing to do with it.
Scarlett Johansson vs AI App
An app used Johansson's likeness and voice for its 22-second ad to promote its AI image editor online. Specifically, the actress is going after the developers of Lisa AI: 90s Yearbook & Avatar for cloning her voice without her consent.
In the ad, a snippet of the actress was taken from a video of her behind the scenes as she filmed "Black Widow." It was Johansson herself saying "What's up guys? It's Scarlett and I want you to come with me," as reported by The Verge.
That was the only portion of the ad that featured the actual "Avengers" star. As it continued, the ad cloned her voice to make it seem like she was promoting the ad, saying: "It's not limited to avatars only. You can also create images with texts and even your AI videos. I think you shouldn't miss it."
This has become a common occurrence with various AI apps, especially ones that can generate 90s yearbook photos of you if you submit images of yourself. There have been ads floating around social media using the likeness of artists like Taylor Swift and Harry Styles as well.
The advertisement of Lisa AI: 90s Yearbook & Avatar contained a disclaimer at the bottom of the video. Along with the name of the company, Convert Software, it writes: "Images produced by Lisa AI. It has nothing to do with this person."
However, it was not enough for that to avoid legal consequences. Johansson's lawyer Kevin Yorn is already handling the situation in a "legal capacity" and her representatives reiterate that she has no affiliation whatsoever with the AI app.
Yorn expressed that they do not take these things lightly, and Johansson's legal team per their "usual course of action in these circumstances, we will deal with it with all legal remedies that we will have."
Other Famous Personalities Affected by Deepfakes
Scarlett Johansson is not the first victim of AI tools being used to copy their likeness, and it is likely that she won't be the last. In October, both Tom Hanks and MrBeast (James Donaldson) were the subject of ads that they had no connections to.
Tom Hanks took to Instagram to warn his fans about a dental ad using his likeness without his consent. In his post, it says: "BEWARE! There's a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me. I had nothing to do with it."
On the other hand, an AI deepfake of MrBeast was also generated to make it seem like he was offering iPhone 15 Pros to 10,000 for just $2. It was also believable since it was the sort of thing that the YouTuber was famous for. Fortunately, the ad was already taken down hours after it was posted.
