AI "resurrected" without the consent of the deceased's family for the purpose of promoting related courses
Resurrecting dead celebrities has become an online business
● Many industry insiders interviewed said that the essence of the incident of AI "resurrecting" dead celebrities is likely to be the hype of a certain AI team or individual, which will increase traffic and may even harvest fans of celebrities as "leeks" in the future.
● Purchase a discipleship course for 980 yuan, which includes an "AI Resurrection Disciple Manual" to master the basic technical principles and learn to use AI resurrection tools, and receive a free face-changing course worth 2,999 yuan. If you want to learn to make more realistic videos of the deceased and add highly similar voices, you need to pay 19,800 yuan.
● The boundaries of scientific and technological development should be based on the premise of maintaining social rule of law, protecting individual rights and interests, and ensuring the bottom line of ethics. The promotion of digital "resurrection" technology requires more supervision and regulation, which not only ensures technological innovation, but also protects human value and dignity. This can be brought into play in actual operations through "soft laws" such as industry standards, corporate self-discipline behavior, etc. normative effect
□ Our reporter Zhao Li
□ Li Jifan, an intern of this newspaper
AI videos of many deceased celebrities have frequently appeared on short video platforms recently. In the video, AI Coco Lee said "I hope you all live well", AI Godfrey Gao said "I feel every message and concern you have", and AI Qiao Renliang also said hello to fans.
However, such AI videos immediately aroused opposition from the family members of the deceased. Some celebrity family members demanded an immediate stop to the infringement, expressing severe condemnation and resolute boycott of the behavior.
A recent investigation by a reporter from "Rule of Law Daily" found that using AI to "resurrection" the dead has become a business. Experts interviewed suggested that AI's "resurrection" of deceased stars involves our thinking about memory, death and personal rights. Whether among deceased relatives or celebrities, there are many ethical and legal issues worth discussing. Generally speaking, the boundaries of scientific and technological development should be carried out on the premise of maintaining social rule of law, protecting individual rights and interests, and ensuring the ethical bottom line.
Many celebrities have been resurrected by AI
Suspected of infringement without consent
The "resurrection" of deceased celebrities by AI has attracted widespread attention and discussion in society.
According to media reports, after Qiao Renliang was "resurrected" by AI, his father said that he had seen the images spread online, could not accept them and felt uncomfortable, and hoped that they would be taken off the shelves as soon as possible. "They did not ask for our consent, which is exposing scars." . Gao Yixiang's family also expressed through his agent that they did not want Gao Yixiang's portrait to be used arbitrarily by others, and severely condemned and resolutely resisted the behavior. If the infringement is not stopped immediately, legal action will be taken.
Reporters noticed that on the evening of March 16, a blogger who posted a video of AI "resurrecting" celebrities said: "Because using AI to 'resurrect' deceased celebrities is suspected of infringing on their portrait rights, we will not be able to 'resurrect' celebrities for everyone in the future. "." However, the blogger also said that he would continue to serve fans who hope to "resurrect" their loved ones through AI technology.
At present, reporters can still see deceased celebrities expressing their "thoughts" in AI videos on some video platforms. AI Gao Yixiang said: "I heard that during the time I left, some people started to exercise and some learned to cook... I am not with you, but I have been with you in another world." AI Yao Beina said: "I will go You can still sing to your heart’s content in this place.” AI Kobe said in English: “I’m very happy to meet you again in this way.”
Wu Qing (pseudonym), who works in the field of digital "resurrection", carefully reviewed the videos related to AI "resurrection" stars and bluntly said that these so-called AI "resurrection" stars are basically simple photos + universal sounds + universal copywriting Processing cannot meet the needs of "resurrecting" the personality of the deceased person.
Wu Qing believes that the words spoken by celebrities such as Coco Lee, Qiao Renliang, and Gao Yixiang in the video after being "resurrected" by AI are exactly the same. For example, AI Coco Lee's lines: "The moment I left this world, I felt your Love." Many fans of Coco Lee questioned this, believing that the producers did not understand what happened to Coco Lee during her lifetime. In other words, the above video only restores what some people or someone wants everyone to see about the state of Coco Lee, Qiao Renliang, and Gao Yixiang being "resurrected" by AI, but does not restore the state of the three deceased stars themselves.
"It can even be said that producers use artificial intelligence to puppetize some dead stars, 'resurrect' them through AI and then earn traffic." Wu Qing said.
During the investigation, many industry insiders expressed the same view to reporters: "The essence of the AI 'resurrection' of deceased celebrities is likely to be the hype of a certain AI team or individual, which will increase traffic and may even bring celebrities into the spotlight in the future. The fans are harvested as 'leeks'."
Wu Qing explained: "In real 'digital resurrection' cases, including Bao Xiaobai's, AI technology is used to enter the words, words used, videos and other elements of the deceased into a computer database, and through Artificial intelligence performs learning, calculation, induction and modeling, and finally performs mechanical intelligent calculations and predictions to generate new elements to achieve the purpose of 'resurrecting' the deceased, and the clients are all relatives of the deceased."
According to Zheng Ning, director of the Law Department of the School of Cultural Industry Management of Communication University of China, in order to protect the personality rights of the deceased, the producer can only conduct AI "resurrection" operations with the consent of the deceased's heirs. At the same time, when producers use AI technology to "resurrection" the deceased, they also need to prevent infringement. "For example, if the image produced deviates too much from the actual situation, causing certain distortions to the image of the user's deceased relative, etc., there may be infringement." The deceased’s reputation, portrait and other related personal rights and interests”.
Zhao Zhanhan, a lawyer at Beijing Jiawei Law Firm, mentioned that AI "resurrection" videos generated without the authorization of close relatives, whether for profit or not, have infringed on the portrait rights of deceased celebrities. Close relatives can send a notice to the online platform that published the infringing content, requesting the platform to take measures such as deleting or blocking links. According to the provisions of the Civil Code, if the platform fails to delete the infringing content in a timely manner, it will be jointly and severally liable for the expanded damage.
Zheng Ning believes that using other people's portraits to make AI products without authorization is illegal in itself. If you take the opportunity to divert traffic and realize cash, it is a continuous illegal act. Corresponding actions can be carried out in accordance with the Cybersecurity Law and the "Regulations on the Ecological Governance of Network Information Content" If an administrative penalty infringes upon the portrait, reputation, honor, privacy, etc. of the deceased, the perpetrator may be required to bear civil liability in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Code.
Advertise with celebrity effect
Discipleship courses can be purchased for NT$980
The reporter noticed that before the relevant video was removed from the shelves, many bloggers’ top messages in the comment area were about topics such as AI “resurrection” promotion, recruiting disciples, and charging for AI videos.
"It is not difficult to see that this is an act of using celebrity influence to advertise one's own products," said Chang Sha, a lawyer at Beijing Jingdu Law Firm.
In addition to AI "resurrecting" dead celebrities, social media also uses AI technology to create photos of popular stars, historical celebrities, and leaders from all walks of life. The effect can even be as fake as real. It has been sought after by many fans and even hopes to be used as photos. Mobile phone wallpapers, social account avatars, etc.
According to the advertising recommendations in the above comment area, the reporter contacted the relevant customer service through an e-commerce platform and expressed that he hoped to obtain some celebrity materials to post on social media. Customer service responded: "The prices of the materials we provide range from 48 yuan to 298 yuan, depending on the content and quality you need."
In order to further understand the use of these AI materials, the reporter immediately asked: "Have you ever taken photos for fans of artists?" The above-mentioned customer service said: "The pictures produced are highly ornamental and welcomed by fans, but they are definitely not It will involve defaming or defaming celebrities, so you can use it with confidence.”
However, in response to the reporter's doubts about "Is it legal to do this? Are you worried about infringement of portrait rights?", customer service asked: "Are you using it for yourself? If you are using it for yourself, these issues will not be involved."
When the reporter further asked: "If I want to make a set of fake photos of deceased celebrities, is it feasible?" The customer service replied: "It is technically feasible, but the risk is relatively high, so the charging standard will be increased accordingly." When I wanted to know more about related business, the other party seemed to be wary and stopped replying.
After communication, the reporter found that publishing videos of AI "resurrecting" celebrities is a way for these producers on the short video platform to attract customers. Some producers' homepages show that they undertake the production of "digital people" and "resurrection" of deceased relatives, etc. business. The reporter consulted these producers as potential buyers or collaborators of AI videos. A producer said that he can make AI videos of deceased stars. "You only need to provide photos of the deceased stars and what you want to say to customize it. It costs 89 yuan in 30 seconds." After the AI video production is completed, the purchaser can publish it on the video platform, and the video producer will publish it on his account after seeking the consent of the rights holder.
There are also such teams recruiting apprentices and agents.
To investigate further, the reporter added a social media account claiming to be an AI resurrection master to a private message on a short video platform. According to the AI Resurrection Master Discipleship Program introduced by him, for different groups such as mothers, white-collar workers, students, etc., as long as they are interested in learning AI technology, starting a business, or doing a side job, they can purchase a discipleship course for 980 yuan.
The content of the course includes an "AI Resurrection Disciple's Manual" to master the basic technical principles and learn to use AI resurrection tools, and a free face-changing course worth 2,999 yuan. After completing the course, students can create talking videos of photos of the deceased and use AI dubbing. The project is priced at 198 yuan. The headquarters will distribute orders ranging from 5 to 50 every day, and you will receive a 50 yuan share for each completed order. In addition, if you want to learn to make more realistic videos of the deceased and add highly similar voices, you need to pay 19,800 yuan. It is understood that the payment method is direct payment, there is no contract, and the course can be completed within 3 days.
In addition, there are advertisements saying that to become an AI "resurrection" agent, you need to pay 980 yuan to it. The team will provide and produce the video. The agent is taking orders. The team's quotation to the agent is 40% off the price list, and the difference is Agent's earnings.
Strengthen technical supervision and regulations
We must adhere to the ethical bottom line
During the interview, some legal practitioners mentioned that AI "resurrecting" dead celebrities will create a series of legal issues.
Some lawyers have suggested that for deceased public figures, using the works left by the deceased to train AI tools and launch "digital people" in the name of the deceased without authorization may involve unfair competition issues. For example, using the works of deceased artists such as Qiao Renliang and Coco Li to train models and form paid works may exceed the scope of fair use. Although there is still controversy over whether training AI with other people's designated works infringes copyright, from the perspective of unfair competition, the works and images generated by AI will indeed compete with close relatives who have obtained the rights to the works through inheritance, and may also compete with The interests of other brokerage agencies and performing arts companies authorized to cooperate by the artist during his lifetime conflict.
"Ethics is the foundation of everything. Only ethical technology can develop and progress in an orderly manner under the constraints and supervision of the law." Chang Sha said that without the consent of herself and her close relatives, the artist's image was transformed into an AI. It may cause disrespect to the deceased and mental damage to relatives.
"Any illegal incident of fraud or infringement has a specific perpetrator, grasp the core facts, and use existing legal rules to investigate. In this process, AI is actually just a tool." In Zheng Ning's view, overall, The boundaries of scientific and technological development should be carried out on the premise of maintaining social rule of law, protecting individual rights and interests, and ensuring the bottom line of ethics. The promotion of digital "resurrection" technology requires more supervision and regulation, which not only ensures technological innovation, but also protects human value and dignity. "This can be achieved through 'soft laws' such as industry standards, corporate self-discipline behavior, etc., in actual operations. play a normative role.”
Zheng Ning also emphasized that signing a contract is also an important part. The contract must clearly stipulate that the property rights and other rights of "digital people" belong to individuals rather than companies. In addition, the contract should also include detailed provisions on liability for breach of contract. If a cooperative enterprise is found to have violated laws and regulations, it should report and complain to the competent authorities in a timely manner. This kind of reporting can help maintain the legal order of the entire industry and protect the legitimate rights and interests of the majority of users.