SKF advert review – let’s hope this dull AI Greta Garbo is not the future
Swedish-American actor exhumed for bizarre, humourless 99 seconds that give us another reason to resent AI Poor Greta Garbo. Perhaps, in life, she thought her final indignity would be the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore TV sketch from 1970, showing Pete as the legendary recluse standing on the back of a flatbed truck as it rumbles through the crowded city streets, shouting at everyone through a…
A Swedish-American actress is being revived through artificial intelligence for a peculiar 99-second television advertisement by the ball-bearings company SKF. This decision has sparked resentment towards AI technology, as Greta Garbo, who passed away in 1990, has been transformed into a dull and humorless figure for the advertisement.
The actress, originally known as Greta Gustafsson, had a brief appearance in a SKF promotional film in 1921, which may have led to her resurrection in this ad. The AI-generated Garbo appears in a silk blouse and stylish slacks, delivering a script filled with generic movie clichés, such as "Are we rolling?" and expressing her appreciation for the product.
The ad ends with an awkward joke about her desire for solitude, which seems at odds with her real-life persona. SKF claims that this AI version of Garbo was created using images and pictures from other sources, potentially avoiding copyright issues with film studios. However, the company is open to licensing the AI Garbo for other movies, which raises questions about the appropriateness of using a reimagined version of a famous actress for a product advertisement. It is hoped that this usage of AI-generated content will not set a precedent for the future.
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- Reanimated AI Greta Garbo stars again … in a ball-bearing advert theguardian.com
