Actors Horrified as They Learn What Selling Their Faces as AI Actually Means

From peddling snake oil on social media, to backing foreign coups. Some actors who were desperate to make a quick buck are now learning of the horrifying consequences of selling their likenesses to companies that use them in AI videos, Agence France-Presse reports. South Korean actor Simon Lee, for example, found that his image was being used to promote "questionable health cures" on TikTok and Instagram. And the terms of his contract meant there was nothing he could do to get the videos removed. "If it was a nice advertisement, it would've been fine to me," Lee told AFP. "But obviously it is such a scam." In 2022, British actor and model Connor Yeates signed a three-year deal with a company called Synthesia for $5,240 because, at the time, he was sleeping on a friend's couch and "needed the money." Later, Yeates found out that his face was used in a video to promote Ibrahim Traore, the president of Burkina Faso who took power in a coup d'état in 2022 — a usage that was a blatant vi ... Read full article.