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Tom Hanks pictured at the Cannes film festival in May 2022.
CNN
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Actor Tom Hanks believes that he could keep appearing in new movies after he dies thanks to the power of artificial intelligence (AI).
“What is a bona fide possibility right now, if I wanted to, [is] I could get together and pitch a series of seven movies that would star me in them in which I would be 32 years old from now until kingdom come,” Hanks told the latest episode of “The Adam Buxton Podcast,” released Saturday.
“Anybody can now recreate themselves at any age they are by way of AI or deep fake technology … I could be hit by a bus tomorrow and that’s it, but my performances can go on and on and on,” the Oscar-winning actor added.
“Outside of the understanding that it’s been done by AI or deep fake, there’ll be nothing to tell you that it’s not me and me alone and it’s going to have some degree of lifelike quality.”
Buxton then suggested that people would be able to tell the difference between AI Hanks and the real version.
While Hanks acknowledged that an AI version of himself would not be able to produce the same performances as he does now, he wondered whether audiences would really mind.
“Without a doubt people will be able to tell, but the question is, will they care?” he said. “There are some people that won’t care, that won’t make that delineation.”
The task of creating an AI Hanks would be made easier as his likeness and movements were recorded for use in the 2004 movie “The Polar Express,” he said.
“This has always been lingering,” said Hanks. “The first time we did a movie that had a huge amount of our own data locked in a computer — literally what we looked like — was a movie called ‘The Polar Express.’”
“We saw this coming, we saw that there was going to be this ability in order to take zeros and ones inside a computer and turn it into a face and a character. Now, that has only grown a billionfold since then and we see it everywhere.”
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Tom Hanks in 2004's "The Polar Express."
Hanks also said that the developments in AI are encouraging movie agents to write contracts to protect actors’ likenesses as intellectual property.
“I can tell you that there [are] discussions going on in all of the guilds, all of the agencies, and all of the legal firms in order to come up with the legal ramifications of my face and my voice and everybody else’s being our intellectual property,” he said.
Hanks is currently promoting his debut novel “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece.”
According to the official synopsis, the book is based on “a wildly ambitious story of the making of a colossal, star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film, and the humble comic book that inspired it all.”
Some of the initial reviews of the book have been mixed, but Hanks is taking the criticism in his stride.
In an interview with the BBC, he explained why he took on the project. “Sometimes you just have to have some other reason to spark your imagination,” he said, adding that his novel will “live and die based on its own ability to entertain and enlighten an audience.”
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Tom Hanks poses for a portrait in 2013.
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Hanks was born in Concord, California, in 1956.
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One of Hanks' first major roles came in the television sitcom "Bosom Buddies." The show, which also starred Peter Scolari, ran for two seasons from 1980-1982.
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Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, married in 1988. It was Hanks' second marriage.
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Hanks starred in several movies in the mid-1980s, but his breakthrough role came in the 1988 comedy "Big." Hanks was nominated for an Academy Award.
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Hanks performs his monologue while hosting an episode of "Saturday Night Live" in 1990. He has hosted the show nine times during his career.
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Hanks is joined by his wife, Rita, as he receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1992.
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Hanks won an Academy Award for his role as an AIDS-stricken lawyer in 1993's "Philadelphia."
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Hanks holds his Oscar at the 1994 Academy Awards.
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Hanks stars as the lead character in the 1994 film "Forrest Gump." That role earned Hanks his second Oscar in as many years.
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Hanks is honored by Harvard University students as the Hasty Pudding Man of the Year in 1995.
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Hanks received an Oscar nomination for his role in the World War II epic "Saving Private Ryan" in 1998.
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Hanks stars with Meg Ryan in the 1994 romantic comedy "You've Got Mail." The two starred in several movies together.
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Hanks and Tim Allen pose with their "Toy Story" characters in 1999. The animated franchise has been wildly successful, with three sequels since the first film in 1995.
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Hanks got more critical acclaim for his role in 2000's "Cast Away."
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Hanks, his wife and two of his children attend a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball game in 2004. Hanks also has a son and a daughter from his first marriage to Samantha Lewes.
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Hanks reads a historical text at the "We Are One" concert, which was one of President Barack Obama's inauguration celebrations in 2009.
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Hanks throws out the ceremonial first pitch before a pro baseball game in Tokyo in 2009.
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Hanks looks at his caricature after it was unveiled at Sardi's restaurant in New York in 2013.
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Hanks and his wife attend the European premiere of "Captain Phillips" in 2013.
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Hanks hams it up with late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert in October 2016.
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Hanks receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in November 2016. "From a Philadelphia courtroom, to Normandy's beachheads, to the dark side of the moon, he has introduced us to America's unassuming heroes," President Obama said at the ceremony.
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Hanks played pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger in the 2016 film "Sully." Sullenberger was the pilot who successfully landed a passenger plane in the Hudson River in 2009.
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Hanks plays journalist Bill Bradlee in 2017's "The Post."
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Hanks attends the People's Choice Awards in 2017.
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Hanks poses with his "Toy Story" character Woody at the premiere of "Toy Story 4" in June 2019.
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Hanks' latest role was Fred Rogers in "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood." He has received a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor.
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Hanks and Wilson attend the 92nd Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood and Highland on Sunday, February 9, in Hollywood.