Bruce Willis denies selling rights to his face - BBC

Last week, it was widely reported that Willis, in the first deal of its kind, had sold his face to a deepfake company called Deepcake.

And a representative of Deepcake said only Willis had the rights to his face.

"Two-time Emmy winner Bruce Willis can still appear in movies after selling his image rights to Deepcake," the story reads.

"Bruce Willis has become the first Hollywood star to sell his rights to allow a 'digital twin' of himself to be created for use on screen." said the Telegraph.

What is true is that a deepfake of Bruce Willis was used to create an advert for Megafon, a Russian telecoms company, last year.

Russian firm Deepcake used an authorized deepfake of the Bruce Willis in the commercial for telecoms company Megafon.

The tech used in the advert was created by Deepcake, which describes itself as an AI company specializing in deepfakes.

On its website, Deepcake promotes its work with an apparent quote from Mr Willis: "I liked the precision of my character.

However, Willis's agent told the BBC, "Please know that Bruce has no partnership or agreement with this Deepcake company.".

The BBC asked Willis's agent whether he had ever worked with Deepcake, or whether the quote used by the company was accurate.

In a statement from Deepcake, the company said reports that it had bought the rights to Bruce Willis's face were inaccurate.

"The wording about rights is wrong… Bruce couldn't sell anyone any rights, they are his by default," a representative for the company said.