TechRadar · September 8, 2026

‘I’ve seen AIs of me sitting with Obama talking about insane things that we never did’: George Clooney raises the alarm over AI fakes — while Maggie Gyllenhaal says the tech 'fundamentally did not work’ when she was pressured to use it in filmmaking

ArtsMedia StudiesIntellectual Property Law

THE AI ANGLE

Fabricating unauthorized deepfakes and attempting to synthetically replicate actor performances

At a creative symposium in Venice, George Clooney warned against hyper-realistic deepfakes fabricating public figures, while director Maggie Gyllenhaal reported scrapping an AI recreation of Marilyn Monroe because it failed to capture human nuance and emotion. These dual Hollywood experiences highlight growing industry friction surrounding the legal protection of personal likenesses and the medium's creative limitations. For media, legal, and arts faculty, this moment illustrates how synthetic media challenges authenticity and performance without necessarily succeeding as an expressive art form.

THE TEACHING ANGLE

Instructors can examine the tension between studio pressures to deploy synthetic digital likenesses and the artistic limitations of AI in replicating human emotional depth.

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‘I’ve seen AIs of me sitting with Obama talking about insane things that we never did’: George Clooney raises the alarm over AI fakes — while Maggie Gyllenhaal says the tech 'fundamentally did not work’ when she was pressured to use it in filmmaking

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