Endorsement spanning a century: SKF used AI to “resurrect” late actress Greta Garbo for advertising跨越百年的代言：斯凯孚用 AI“复活”已故女星葛丽泰 · 嘉宝拍广告

IT House reported on October 5, "Has filming started?" the image of Greta Garbo, the Hollywood movie star of the 1930s, generated by artificial intelligence asked softly. This is a seemingly unexpected advertisement, placed by Swedish ball bearing manufacturer SKF (SKF). According to Reuters, the ad sparked heated debate and was met with both praise and ridicule. This incident also highlights that artificial intelligence, with its increasingly mature technology, is continuously penetrating into the media field, extending from script writing to animation production. Greta Garbo, one of the most famous stars of Hollywood's "Golden Age", passed away in 1990 at the age of 84; decades earlier, in 1941, she had bid farewell to the screen and retired from the public eye. SKF said it used artificial intelligence to "recreate" the Swedish-American actress. More than a century ago, Garbo once starred in a short film to promote Swedish local industries overseas, and SKF was one of the promotion targets at that time. The AI ​​virtual character wearing a champagne-colored silk top said in the advertisement: "One of the films I shot in the early years was shot for SKF. Now, I have returned again to complete my last work." SKF said that this version of Garbo's virtual image did not use archive photos or historical video materials. Per Nilsson, the company’s head of brand and communications, explained that due to copyright considerations, the character image was generated based on text prompt words. SKF said that in the image generation process, the production team used Bytedance’s Seedream 5 Pro and Google Gemini’s Nano Banana Pro; in terms of action generation, Bytedance’s Seedance 2 and Seedance 2.5 were used, as well as Beijing Kuaishou Technology’s Kling AI. The voice part uses the original voice from one of Garbo's early films for AI training. This is also the only archived audio material provided by SKF for use by AI after being authorized. At the same time, real actors are also involved to assist in adjusting the rhythm and intonation of the speech. "I think we did it with respect," Nelson said. The ad was produced with the permission of the estate of Greta Garbo and her family. Artificial intelligence brings "powerful blessing" Henry Ajder, a consultant and researcher in the field of AI, pointed out that although this is not the first time that businesses have used the portraits of deceased people to promote products, this advertisement shows the effects that current new technologies can achieve. He calls this phenomenon "synthetic resurrection." "This trend has actually existed for several years, but artificial intelligence has given it stronger capabilities." He said. But not everyone agrees with this. The British "Guardian" film critic Peter Bradshaw gave the commercial a one-star rating. He wrote: "Poor Greta Garbo." And added that this incident gave people another reason to dislike artificial intelligence. IT House has noticed that many living celebrities are also concerned about this trend. Actor George Clooney said at last month's Venice Film Festival: "I don't want to be in a tampon ad 20 years after I die."