Tom Hanks Warned Fans About an AI Version of Himself Selling a Dental Plan
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9.5 Million
Followers Who Saw the Warning
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2004
Year His Likeness Was First Digitized
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"Beware!!"
His Own Reaction
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Medium
Fooled Index
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AI-GENERATED — The real Hanks looks nothing like this. He said so himself.
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In October 2023, actor Tom Hanks posted a warning on his verified Instagram account after discovering a video circulating online that used an AI-generated version of his likeness to promote a dental plan. "BEWARE!!" he wrote, alongside a screenshot of the fabricated video. "There's a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me. I have nothing to do with it." The AI version of Hanks appeared visibly de-aged compared to how he actually looks now.
Hanks had discussed exactly this possibility months earlier on The Adam Buxton Podcast, noting that studios could technically use his digitally scanned likeness, first captured for the 2004 film "The Polar Express," to put him in new movies indefinitely without him ever physically showing up. "We saw this coming," he said at the time. "We saw that there was going to be this ability to take zeros and ones inside a computer and turn it into a face and a character."
The video used no real quote or footage from Hanks actually discussing dental care; it was built entirely to look convincing enough that fans reached out to him directly asking about the product, prompting his public denial.
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The real person said so, directly. Hanks posted his own denial from his verified account, the clearest possible confirmation that the video wasn't authorized.
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His likeness was already digitized, for a real reason. Hanks's face had been captured decades earlier for legitimate film work, exactly the kind of data an AI tool would need to recreate him convincingly.
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Fans reached out to him about it. The video was convincing enough that real followers contacted Hanks directly asking about the product, which is how it came to his attention at all.
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He'd predicted this exact scenario before. Hanks discussed the possibility of an AI version of himself acting on his behalf months earlier, on a podcast, before it actually happened to him.
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🚨 100% AI-Generated
Tom Hanks never endorsed any dental plan. The video used an AI-generated, de-aged version of his likeness to make it look like he had, and his own verified account was the fastest way to correct the record once fans started asking him about it.
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Gayle King’s Fans Caught a Fake AI Video Before She Even Confirmed It
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Days after the Hanks video surfaced, CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King discovered a nearly identical scheme targeting her. An AI-manipulated video, built from a real August 31 promotional clip she'd posted for her radio show, made it appear she was personally endorsing a company's products. "People keep sending me this video and asking about this product and I have NOTHING to do with this company," King wrote on Instagram, adding that she'd never heard of the product before. Sharp-eyed followers had already noticed the tells themselves before King spoke up: her words didn't quite match her lip movements, and her voice carried an oddly flat, emotionless quality throughout the clip. Her own co-host, Nate Burleson, reacted directly to the post: "Oh my... Gayle this is terrifying!"
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YOUR REALITY DETECTOR TOOLKIT |
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Today’s Skill: Watch Where Lips and Words Don’t Quite Line Up
A manipulated voice track over real footage often leaves small, catchable seams.
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Watch where lips and words don’t quite line up
Viewers noticed Gayle King's mouth movements didn't fully match the audio before she ever confirmed it was fake. A slight mismatch between speech and lip movement is one of the most reliable AI tells.
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Listen for emotion that doesn’t match the words
King's fabricated audio sounded flat, lacking the natural variation a real person would have talking about something personal. A monotone delivery on an emotional topic is worth a second listen.
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Check the person’s own account before you trust an endorsement
Both Hanks and King had to personally deny these videos on their own verified accounts. If a celebrity endorsement seems surprising, check their real account directly before trusting it.
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