AI Fakes Target Stars Curtis Fights Back

Unwanted Spotlight Curtis and the AI Fakery Battle

Jamie Lee Curtis found herself unexpectedly central to Hollywoods conversation about artificial intelligence. This wasn't a role she sought, but one that was thrust upon her.

The Oscar winning actor recently took to social media to call out Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg. Her grievance stemmed from the company's failure to address her requests to remove a fake AI generated advertisement from Instagram, which had been active on the platform for several months.

According to Curtis, the deceptive ad repurposed footage from an MSNBC interview she gave concerning the Los Angeles area wildfires in January. Her voice was manipulated in the ad to falsely suggest she was endorsing a dental product.

"I was not looking to become the poster child of internet fakery, and I’m certainly not the first," Curtis stated in a phone interview with The Times. Fortunately, the ad has since been taken down.

A Wider Problem Actors Face

What Curtis experienced is indicative of a larger challenge confronting actors as generative AI technology becomes more sophisticated. This technology enables the unauthorized alteration of their images and voices, often resulting in misleading content.

Numerous celebrities, including Tom Hanks who warned about fraudulent AI ads, Taylor Swift whose likeness was used in AI deepfake scams, and Scarlett Johansson who was targeted by an AI deepfake video, have had their images manipulated by AI to promote products and ideas they never endorsed.

AI technology has simplified the creation of these fabricated videos, which can spread rapidly online, outpacing the efforts of social media platforms to remove them. There's a growing call for social media companies to enhance their policing of misinformation.

"We are standing at the turning point, and I think we need to take some action," Curtis urged.

The Elusive Takedown A Months Long Struggle

Curtis first learned about the fake AI ad approximately a month and a half ago from a friend. The acclaimed actor immediately alerted her agents, lawyers, and publicists. They advised her to send a cease and desist letter to Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.

Despite these efforts, nothing happened.

"It’s like a vacuum," Curtis described her experience. "There are no people. You can’t reach anybody. You have an email, you send an email, you never get anything back."

Two weeks later, another friend reported the same fake AI video. When Curtis contacted her team again, they assured her they had followed all proper procedures, she recounted.

"I went through the proper channels," Curtis emphasized. "There should be a methodology to this. I understand there’s going to be a misuse of this stuff, but then there’s no avenue of getting any satisfaction. So then it’s lawlessness, because if you have no way of rectifying it, what do you do?"

Curtis expressed concern about the potential for AI to maliciously alter the voices and images of public figures, citing Pope Leo XIV, who has identified AI as a significant challenge for humanity. She pondered the danger if someone used AI to attribute unsupported ideas to the pope.

A Public Plea and Swift Action

Inspired by this potential for harm, and unable to message Mark Zuckerberg directly, Curtis made a pointed Instagram post, tagging him.

"My name is Jamie Lee Curtis and I have gone through every proper channel to ask you and your team to take down this totally AI fake commercial for some bulls— that I didn’t endorse," Curtis wrote in her Monday post. "... I’ve been told that if I ask you directly, maybe you will encourage your team to police it and remove it."

The post quickly garnered over 55,000 likes.

"I’ve done commercials for people all my life, so if they can make a fake commercial with me, that hurts my brand," Curtis explained in an interview. "If my brand is authenticity, you’re co-opting my brand for nefarious gains in the future."

Following her public post, a neighbor shared an email address for someone at Meta who might be able to assist. Curtis emailed this contact, including her team and attaching the Instagram posts. Within an hour of sending that email, the fake AI ad was removed, she reported.

"It worked!" Curtis declared on Instagram on Monday in all caps. "Yay internet! Shame has its value! Thanks all who chimed in and helped rectify!"

Meta Responds and Industry Concerns

Meta confirmed on Monday that the fake ad had been taken down.

"They violate our policies prohibiting fraud, scams and deceptive practices," stated Meta spokesman Andy Stone in an email.

As AI technology becomes more accessible, tech companies are developing methods to identify AI generated content and remove material that violates their standards.

Organizations such as the actors guild SAG-AFTRA are also pushing for more legislation to address AI, including deepfakes. The 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes were partly driven by demands for greater protection against job displacement due to AI.

Curtis Calls for Systemic Change

Curtis expressed that she would have preferred the fake AI ad to be removed immediately. She advocates for technology companies, not just Meta, to establish safeguards and provide direct access to personnel responsible for policing what she calls "this wild, wild west called the internet."

"It got the attention, but I’m also a public figure," Curtis remarked. "So how does someone who’s not a public figure get any satisfaction? I want to represent everyone. I don’t want it to just be celebrities. I wanted to use that as an example to say this is wrong."