Humanity at large is not healthy enough to wield the power that artificial intelligence provides. Whatever good it’s capable of doing, its capacity for destruction — be it through fake news, imploding creative industries, or replacing genuine human connection — is simply too great to justify its prevalence.
Celebrities are uniquely vulnerable to AI, as their platforms and status as public figures can be exploited by AI to greater effect. Scarlett Johansson, whose likeness has been plagiarized by AI in the past, knows this better than most and is speaking out against yet another unauthorized use of her image.
Per People, Johansson condemned the unauthorized use of her likeness in a recent viral video featuring AI-generated versions of Jewish celebrities adorned in white t-shirts with Star of David-emblazoned middle fingers on it. Under the graphic is the name “Kanye,” referencing a series of antisemitic tweets that Kanye West made last week on X.
Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Spielberg, Adam Sandler, and Jack Black were also among the celebrities who were replicated in the video.
The actress — who made it clear that she wasn’t condemning the video’s messaging, but the dangerous precedent of A.I. that happens to be in use here — stood fast in her belief that while she is “a Jewish woman who has no tolerance for antisemitism or hate speech of any kind,” she also believes that “the potential for hate speech multiplied by AI is a far greater threat than any one person who takes accountability for it. We must call out the misuse of AI, no matter its messaging, or we risk losing a hold on reality.”
She also urged the United States government to pass legislation that directly targets potential misuse of AI, calling the matter “a bipartisan issue that enormously affects the immediate future of humanity at large.”
In addition to West’s tweets (which have since been deleted per the deletion of the rapper’s X account), he also featured in a Super Bowl ad last Sunday to promote his website, Yeezy (which has also since been deleted). On the site, users could purchase t-shirts with swastikas on them, and the ad also provided the product code “HH,” which stands for exactly what you think it does.
Johansson’s last tango with A.I. came in the form of a lawsuit against OpenAI, which launched Sky, a new version of its ChatGPT system, in May of last year. The system’s voice resembled her own, despite the actress previously declining the offer made by OpenAI to use her likeness.
The launch was underscored by a tweet from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that simply read “her,” in reference to the 2013 sci-fi film Her, which stars Johansson as the voice of an AI operating system that develops a relationship with the film’s protagonist (played by Joaquin Phoenix).
Bottom line? The cons of AI outweigh the pros, because we are simply not collectively responsible enough to not abuse it. The same machine that can call out antisemitism can spill antisemitic vitriol just as easily, and as media literacy declines while the noise of the internet rises, confusion and division is the natural outcome of a world running rampant with artificial intelligence. As such, we need to keep calling out its benign forms so that it can’t grow into something unsurvivable.
Published: Feb 12, 2025 08:59 am