Bruce Willis denies promoting deepfake rights to Deepcake

On Friday, Ars Technica reported that Bruce Willis had offered his likeness to be used in deepfakes, in line with The Telegraph. Dozens of reports websites repeated the Telegraph’s declare. Over the weekend, the BBC found that Bruce Willis has “no partnership or settlement” with the agency Deepcake, which relies in Georgia, the Eurasian republic.

It is unclear how the incorrect declare originated at The Telegraph. Whereas reporting final Friday, we tried to confirm a number of the claims within the authentic Telegraph article (similar to Willis being the primary actor to promote his deepfake rights), however we couldn’t accomplish that, and we famous that within the report. We additionally famous that Deepcake is doing enterprise in America beneath a company registered in Delaware. Nevertheless, we did not observe by with verifying all the declare, and we apologize for the error and for repeating the faulty data.

It is unclear if Deepcake ever had the rights to make use of Bruce Willis’ likeness on its web site or in its advertising and marketing supplies. Deepcake informed the BBC, “What he undoubtedly did is that he gave us his consent (and a number of supplies) to make his Digital Twin.” Deepcake additionally claims, per The Hollywood Reporter, that the corporate’s involvement with Willis arrived by the Artistic Artists Company to be used in a 2021 Russian cellphone business. Nevertheless, Willis’ representatives nonetheless deny having any involvement with the corporate.