- Jamie Yeo, an actor and model, is one of several celebrities embracing the rise of AI deepfakes.
- She is letting a tech firm use a digitally manipulated likeness of her for marketing, per BBC News.
Jamie Yeo, an actor, model, and former radio DJ from Singapore is one of several celebrities embracing the rise of artificial intelligence in the industry.
Yeo told BBC News she had signed a deal with a financial-technology firm, allowing it to use her digitally manipulated likeness for marketing purposes. She told the outlet while she understood the concerns around AI technology she thought that it was "here to stay."
She said: "So even if you don't embrace it because you're scared, there will be other people who will embrace it."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, celebrity deepfakes are becoming increasingly popular. A TikTok account featuring Robert Pattinson deepfakes racked up more than 1 million followers, Insider previously reported.
Meanwhile, the rise of generative AI is one of the central concerns driving the actor's strike, which has gripped Hollywood in recent weeks. The union's national board voted to strike last week after failing to reach a new contract that included a higher share of compensation from streaming services and limits on the use of AI.
Members of the actors' union SAG-AFTRA say studios proposed to pay background actors for a day in exchange for companies taking scans that could be used to create their digital likenesses.
"Actors now face an existential threat to their livelihoods with the rise of generative AI technology," the union's national executive director and chief negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, said at a press conference last week.
The actors join members of the Writers Guild of America on the picket lines. The writers went out on strike in May. It is the first simultaneous strike by actors and writers in more than 60 years.
Writers are equally worried about the rise of AI in the industry, with some concerned that growing financial pressures at entertainment companies will push them to leverage AI over labor.
"This disruption is going to kill the industry," one worker told Insider in May.