Ryan Reynolds used in AI Tesla ad without consent

Deadpool and Blade Trinity actor Ryan Reynolds has been shoved into a Tesla advert using the power of artificial intelligence.

Following news that Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company would move to traditional advertising, a devout Musk follower created an ad for the company using artificial intelligence.

Posted on Twitter, user Meet Kevin (who boasts over 300,000 followers) posted the AI-generated video that stoke Ryan Reynolds’ likeness to shill Musk’s electric vehicle brand.

Using AI voice cloning and some rather creepy deepfake tech, Kevin turned the Green Lantern actor into a mouthpiece for an electric vehicle brand that gets confused by the moon, catches fire, and swerves towards pedestrians.

“Hey, it’s Ryan Reynolds,” the fake advert opens. “How much do you think it costs to own a car that’s this f**king awesome!”

The advert then proceeds to show a short sample of Tesla’s full self-driving feature, feature that has been investigated for false advertising. In response to this, AI Reynolds says: “What the sh*t?! That’s the coolest thing ever.”

“What if I told you that you could own this car for less than the lifetime cost of a Toyota Carola?” The advert continues before cutting to a dog that asks, in Reynolda’ voice: “Who’s balls do I have to fondle to get a Tesla instead of a sh*t Corola?”

Following the release of the fake Tesla ad, Elon Musk responded to the video with a succinct “Nice” instead of condemning the use of deepfakes without consent to push his brand. One fan responded to Musk’s reply with their own AI-generated advert of Ryan Reynolds’ Aviation Gin being promoted by a very drunk-sounding Elon Musk to which Reynolds also responded: “Nice.”

Since the fake advert’s release online, many have called for Ryan Reynolds to sue the creator of the video for using the actor’s face and likeness against his permission. Currently, many actors and celebrities are facing the issue of AI cloning.

For example, AI song covers involving musicians such as Drake, Beyoncé, Rihanna and more have resulted in legal action from the music industry. With song covers using artists’ voices without permission being uploaded to streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, anyone can now earn money off the likeness of others with ease.

Recently, budding actors have even been approached to sell their likenesses to be used in AI video instead of being able to actually act. New job listings published on services such as Backstage ask solely for the likeness of an actor to use and manipulate however a studio wants.

While deepfake technology has been used in an official capacity such as The Mandalorian or Russia’s weird Bruce Willis ads, the technology exists to further exploitation. In fact, voice actors for animation and video games are already worried that they will be replaced with AI tools in the future.

Ryan Reynolds has yet to take legal action against the fake advert, and it doesn’t seem like he will. If the advert was used in an official capacity, the actor would likely already be pursuing legal proceedings against Tesla.

Nevertheless, fans of the actor have urged Reynolds to legally pursue the use of deepfake technology over this fake advert. If Reynolds does decide to take on the technology, it could have major repercussions for the entertainment industry decades into the future.