• by Colin Kirkland , February 17, 2025

A fraudulent artificial intelligence (AI)-powered ad using actor Tom Hanks’ likeness was reported at the end of August but is still being shown on YouTube, bringing into question the social media company's ability to successfully bar misinformation and deepfakes from the platform.

MediaPost discovered the fraudulent ad on Thursday of last week embedded in the middle of a video posted by the official “Late Night with Seth Myers” YouTube account.

In the ad, Hanks, whose voice and visual identity is recreated with AI, is seated in what appears to be a podcast studio, but is footage manipulated from an appearance Hanks made on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Hanks’ lips have been edited to promote a so-called cure to reverse type 2 diabetes in less than three weeks.

In August, Hanks issued a statement to the public on Instagram warning them about this “17-second grape trick” and other similar ads, stating that they “have been created without my consent, fraudulently and through AI.”

When MediaPost reached out to a Google spokesperson, asking why the ad remains active on the platform six months after it was initially reported by Hanks, they said that the “ad in question was added a few days ago, and subsequently flagged by our system for review.”

The spokesperson says the company has since suspended the account “for violating our policies,” removed all of their ads from its platforms, and “terminated two YouTube channels associated with these ads” for violating its policies regarding spam and deceptive practices.

After a policy update introduced last year, Google has allowed its teams to take “stronger and faster account-level action against the bad actor running ads promoting a fake endorsement or affiliation with a public figure,” the company says.

However, YouTube has gained a reputation for featuring widespread deepfake ads utilizing the likeness of celebrities like Julia Roberts, Elon Musk, Taylor Swift and various popular musicians like Billie Eilish, Pearl Jam and Katy Perry.

Not long after Hanks issued a statement regarding the fake diabetes ad, YouTube announced that it was developing new likeness management tech, including a tool that can identify facial deepfakes of creators, actors, musicians and athletes on the platform.

In December, the platform partnered with the Creative Arts Agency to begin testing the tools with “several of the world's most influential figures” who are expected to “provide critical feedback” for the further development of the company's detections systems and controls.