Deepcake – Al solutions for video production | Hacker News Reader

Deepcake – Al solutions for video production

deepcake.io

78 pointsrbanffy21 comments

I see they are showing Bruce Willis as the artist that has agreed to have his digital twin be used in video production but a few days ago he denied it himself*

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63106024.amp

Yeah something weird is going on here. My first thought was that Willis has aphasia so maybe he forgot he signed away the rights. But I'm pretty sure the statement came from his rep. Unless they're blatantly ripping him off though they'd have to have permission even to use his likeness promotionally.

It isn't US based, so they are likely blatantly ripping it off with no permission to get eyes on their company. There are unlikely to be any legal ramifications.

The less likely possibility is that they did get rights, but look so shady that the rep can't confirm it is legitimate without a blow to credibility.

> Willis's agent told the BBC, "Please know that Bruce has no partnership or agreement with this Deepcake company."

A charitable assumption would be that Deepcake thought it found a contact with someone pretending to be Mr Willis’ agent, but that was an impostor.

Considering that the statement they think they got from Mr Willis has the same grammar approximations as the rest of the website, I find it unlikely it was actually from him.

Perhaps they talked to another Bruce Willis deepfake via zoom thinking it's real Bruce. So meta ironic.

Deep cake Inception if you will...

Hah, as I was reading Bruce Willis' statement on deepcake's site (that didn't seem like technical vocab a Hollywood actor would use) I was wondering "man, it would be too good if they just ripped off his likeness for this and he had nothing to do with it."

We have seen pretty much everything during the last years, so I can easily figure a situation in which another company made a better deepfake and contacted Deepcake pretending to be the real Bruce Willis, so that they acquired the rights from a deepfake instead of the real actor.

Or they created a deep fake of Bruce Willis and licensed his likeness from ... it.

This is going to change the whole face (heh!) of identify theft.

I don't seem to understand the confusion here. Deepcake paid Bruce Willis for a one time project (that telecom ad).

The news then seemed to fabricate that he has signed off his likeness in some sort of long term contract. It was later established this wasn't the case, but that still doesn't mean he didn't engage in the previous work.

But his agent said he has no relationship with the company.

No current relationship with the company

That’s not how it was phrased.

Grammar is shoddy, using loaded buzzwords, the concept itself seems dubious at best, etc.

This seems ethically and legally questionable, at best. I'd stay away from this. It's asking for a defamation lawsuit or something similar.

How so? They claim they enter into contract with the people they deepfake

They've been caught lying about it in at least one case (Bruce Willis).

The name is a pun, maybe the whole business is?

One of the new Kendrick Lamar videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAPUkgeiFVY - The Heart Part 5) has some deep fakes in there. He looks like a variety of different people. In the YouTube video description the deep fakes are credited to DEEP VOODOO. Here is an article about DEEP VOODOO: https://www.thefocus.news/tech/deep-voodoo/

And from Wikipedia:

> The music video for "The Heart Part 5", directed by Lamar and Dave Free, was released alongside the song on May 8, 2022.[13] In the video, Lamar performs the song against a red wall, while using deepfake technology to transform himself into six modern Black American figures: in order, they are former football player and convicted felon O. J. Simpson, rapper Kanye West, actors Jussie Smollett, Martin Lawrence and Will Smith, former basketball player Kobe Bryant, and rapper Nipsey Hussle. The deepfakes were made by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone's studio Deep Voodoo.[14]

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heart_Part_5

The song is also really good. I believe it is quite timely.

I've never really understood the fascination with celebrity, and I wonder if this weakens the value of celebrity.

Why is the face of Bruce Willis pasted onto a different actor more valuable than the face of the actor who has been erased?

If we follow this trend 40 years into the future, will actors still be made to look like Bruce Willis because he had success in the late 1900s and then became the face everyone knew as an actor?

> …So, it's virtually any celebrity. The negotiations part is on us.

I hope the legal defense is on you as well

I wonder, certain parts of the world disregard international patent law. How long before they start disregarding digital copyright law as well. What happens when someone makes a production using someone else’s likeness illegally and that film is really successful?

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