Has Bruce Willis Sold the Rights to His Face?

It was widely reported that Willis, in the first deal of its kind, had sold his face to a deepfake company called Deepcake. Deepfakes use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technology to create realistic videos - often of celebrities or politicians. For actors that can no longer act, the technology has the potential to be game-changing. 

The Daily Mail reported that a deal had been struck between Willis and Deepcake, saying "Two-time Emmy winner Bruce Willis can still appear in movies after selling his image rights to Deepcake," the story reads.  The story was then picked up by the Telegraph and a series of other media outlets.  "Bruce Willis has become the first Hollywood star to sell his rights to allow a 'digital twin' of himself to be created for use on screen." said the Telegraph.

But that doesn't appear to be the case. Bruce Willis's agent has denied reports that the film star has sold the rights to his face.  A representative of Deepcake interestingly said only that Willis had the rights to his face-- which isn't a denial that Deepcake has an agreement of some kind with Willis.  

Willis announced his retirement from acting in March after being diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder that affects speech.  What is true is that a deepfake of Bruce Willis was used to create an advert for Megafon, a Russian telecoms company, last year.  The tech used in the advert was created by Deepcake, which describes itself as an AI company specializing in deepfakes. At that time, the company said, "What he definitely did is that he gave us his consent (and a lot of materials) to make his Digital Twin." 

The company says it has a unique library of high-resolution celebrities and historical figures.  On its website, Deepcake promotes its work with an apparent quote from Mr Willis: "I liked the precision of my character. It's a great opportunity for me to go back in time.  The neural network was trained on content of Die Hard and Fifth Element, so my character is similar to the images of that time."

When the current story broke, the BBC asked Willis's agent whether he had ever worked with Deepcake, or whether the quote used by the company was accurate-- there was no response.  The confusion highlights just how new this technology is - and the lack of clear rules around it.