‘We’re going through a big revolution’: how AI is de-ageing stars on screen

Stars like Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford are being rendered younger digitally but voices in the industry express concern about where we might be heading

Craggy, grey-haired and 80 years old, Harrison Ford might seem a bit old to don his brown Fedora-style hat or crack his whip as Indiana Jones. But a trailer for his upcoming film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny offers a flashback to Indy in his swashbuckling glory days.

That is my actual face at that age," the actor explained on CBS's The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. They have this artificial intelligence (AI) programme. It can go through every foot of film that Lucasfilm owns because I did a bunch of movies for them and they have all this footage including film that wasn't printed: stock. They could mine it from where the light is coming from, the expression. But that's my actual face. Then I put little dots on my face and I say the words and they make it. It's fantastic."