Summary SKF uses AI to recreate Greta Garbo for an advertisement, highlighting growing debate over synthetic likenesses and technology’s impact on media.
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence has recreated Hollywood star Greta Garbo for an advertisement by Swedish ball-bearings maker SKF, sparking debate over the use of AI to reproduce the likenesses of deceased public figures.
Garbo, one of Hollywood’s most famous stars during its golden era, died in 1990 at the age of 84. She had retired from movies and public life decades earlier, in 1941.
SKF said it used AI to recreate the Swedish-American actress, who had appeared in a film more than a century ago promoting Swedish industries abroad, including SKF.
In the advertisement, the AI-generated Garbo, dressed in a silky champagne-coloured blouse, appears to say that one of her first films was for SKF and that she had returned for her last.
SKF said the recreation was not made using archival photographs or footage. Per Nilsson, the company’s head of communication and brand, said copyright concerns meant the character was created using text prompts.
For image generation, the creators used Seedream 5 Pro from China's ByteDance and Google’s Gemini Nano Banana Pro. For motion, they used ByteDance’s Seedance 2 and 2.5, along with Kling AI from Beijing-based technology company Kuaishou, SKF said.
The AI-generated voice was trained using Garbo’s voice from one of her early films. SKF said this was the only archival material provided to the AI for which it had obtained permission. A human actor also helped reproduce the appropriate pacing and cadence.
Nilsson said the company believed the project had been handled respectfully. The production was developed in collaboration with the Greta Garbo estate and her family.
AI adviser and researcher Henry Ajder said the campaign was an example of what he described as “synthetic resurrection”, noting that the use of deceased individuals’ likenesses in advertising had been developing for years and had been significantly enhanced by AI.
However, the advertisement also drew criticism. Film critic Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian described the recreation negatively and criticized the use of AI.
Some living actors have also expressed concern about the trend. Actor George Clooney said at the Venice Film Festival last month that he would prefer not to have his li
