{
  "id": 11390157,
  "title": "AI clones turn celeb likeness into a new business",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/02/ai-clones-turn-celeb-likeness-into-a-new-business",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-10-02T07:21:07.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Economic Times",
    "slug": "the-economic-times",
    "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ai/ai-insights/ai-clones-are-turning-celebrity-likeness-into-a-new-business/articleshow/134633788.cms"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Celebrity endorsements often come at a high cost, with brands trying to fit shoots into busy schedules. However, artificial intelligence (AI) may change this dynamic. India-based AI filmmaking studio, Studio Blo, is developing digital clones of celebrities, allowing brands to license their digital likenesses without the celebrity having to physically appear for every shoot. The company, co-founded by Dipankar Mukherjee, Joel James and Rishabh Suri, created the ethical celebrity-cloning platform FAIMOUS to ensure consent, ownership and traceability.\n\nStudio Blo's FAIMOUS platform provides a dashboard for celebrities and brands to generate content featuring the digital clone of the celebrity, which the celebrity retains ownership of during the agreed period. The platform features embedded watermarks and signatures to identify each asset and prevent deepfakes.\n\nStudio Blo has already created digital clones of cricketer Hardik Pandya and a group of women cricketers from the IPL franchise Mumbai Indians. With the growing prevalence of deepfakes, the company also provides tools for celebrities to detect and remove unauthorized uses of their likeness.\n\nThe economics of digital celebrity clones are still being determined, with the company pricing the technology in line with existing AI platforms. The bigger question lies in how celebrities should charge for the commercial use of their likeness. Some argue that the cost should be similar to the celebrity's fee for physical shoots, while others believe that digital clones should be cheaper, as the celebrity is not physically present during the shoot. The cost may ultimately shift from paying for the celebrity's time to paying for access to their digital likeness.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}