Actress Scarlett Johansson has reportedly sued an AI app that used her likeness in an advertisement promoting the app without her permission. This comes at a time when the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA are on the picket lines to prevent their likenesses from being recreated by AI.
This is not the first time that Johansson has faced issues with her personality and face being misused by AI. She first voiced her concerns regarding AI when images of her were being used to make sexually explicit Deepfake videos and were released online.
Scarlett Johansson’s War Against AI-based App Which Used Her Likeness
The development and ever-expanding powers of Artificial Intelligence seem to be the buzzword of the decade. However, with this great power, there seems to be a great responsibility attached to AI researchers to ensure that the technology is not misused and does not cause danger to the general public.
Scarlett Johansson faced a huge invasion of privacy when Lisa AI: 90s Yearbook and Avatar used her likeness in an advertisement. The advertisement, which has since been removed, reportedly shows an old clip of Johansson on the sets of Black Widow, which then transitions into an AI-generated Avatar of the actress talking in a voice similar to her.
While the advertisement has been removed from circulation, the app and many other Lisa AI apps are still available for download. The legal team of Scarlett Johansson issued a statement to Variety condemning the practice of using her likeness in the ad,
“We do not take these things lightly. Per our usual course of action in these circumstances, we will deal with it with all legal remedies that we will have.”
Johansson has been a victim of AI-doctored videos of her in the past, with a much darker misuse of her likeness being employed on the internet.
Scarlett Johansson’s History With AI And Deepfake
The use of her likeness to promote an AI app is not the first time that Scarlett Johansson has been on the receiving end of a privacy breach. Earlier, her computer was reportedly hacked by an obsessed fan and her n*de photos were leaked online. In another instance, a Japan-based robotics researcher had built a robot with the likeness of the actress.
The ease with which the researcher had built the robot, as he had built it in his house with a 3D printer, brought into question the dangers of AI and robotics as well as the protection of privacy. One of the largest breaches of privacy was the use of Johansson’s likeness in Deepfake videos that showed sexually explicit scenes.
Addressing these videos and the use of AI, Johansson issued a statement,
“Clearly this doesn’t affect me as much because people assume it’s not actually me in a porno, however demeaning it is. I think it’s a useless pursuit, legally, mostly because the internet is a vast wormhole of darkness that eats itself.”
The actress went on to state the pointlessness of policies and rules when everything on the internet is a free-for-all,
“Vulnerable people like women, children, and seniors must take extra care to protect their identities and personal content…There are basically no rules on the internet because it is an abyss that remains virtually lawless, withstanding US policies which, again, only apply here.”
Despite Johansson facing such incidents many times, the Her actress does not seem to give up in the fight for privacy.
