Why Keanu Reeves Will Never Let Himself Be Deepfaked Into Movies (It's Not Just Because He's Immortal)

The advancement of artificial intelligence has likely been on everyone's minds over the past few weeks. From apps that use your personal data to generate edited selfies, to major companies pivoting to AI-generated content, there's been a big question about whether popular media will pivot to content produced by machines rather than living creatives. If we can be so easily replaced by machines, is our creativity even worth maintaining?

According to Keanu Reeves, the answer to that question is a resounding yes. The actor, who may know a thing or two about artificial intelligence taking over the world, recently spoke to WIRED to promote the upcoming "John Wick: Chapter 4" with director Chad Stahelski. By happenstance, the interview shifted to a discussion of AI usage in film. When a Russian television ad with a deepfaked Bruce Willis appearance was brought up, Reeves made some pretty passionate remarks lobbying against its widespread usage, defending a clause in his contracts prohibiting deepfakes in the process.

"What's frustrating about that is you lose your agency," he argued. "When you give a performance in a film, you know you're going to be edited, but you're participating in that. If you go into deepfake land, it has none of your points of view. That's scary."

It isn't just deepfakes that Reeves has an issue with. Although he is an advisor for a metaverse initiative called the Futureverse Foundation, he also told WIRED that the current direction of what is considered the mainstream metaverse is a terrifying one. The actor argues that the normalization of such projects could lead to some dire consequences:

"People are growing up with these tools: We're listening to music already that's made by AI in the style of Nirvana, there's NFT digital art. It's cool, like, 'Look what the cute machines can make!' But there's a corporatocracy behind it that's looking to control those things. Culturally, socially, we're gonna be confronted by the value of real, or the nonvalue. And then what's going to be pushed on us?"

Reeves really does make an important point. Like cryptocurrency, AI and the metaverse are not inherently scummy things, as they can theoretically lead to some cutting-edge ways to assist humanity's uniquely creative spirit. However, it seems like the vast majority of AI and metaverse projects want to replace that humanity altogether. In the case of deepfakes, the passion and grit that leads to a powerful screen performance can be easily replaced by an emotionless mask. Tying this into the actor's body of work, no machine could do the impressive action stunts that Reeves and the other actors in the "John Wick" series do. Without that human and emotional touch, it's nothing.

"It's this sensorium. It's spectacle," remarked Reeves, "and it's a system of control and manipulation."

But hey, maybe he just doesn't want to be deepfaked because he's immortal. What do we know?