How to use AI to make you look younger – as Tom Hanks champions using the technology in his latest film

From a daily skin care routine to Botox and facelifts, some people will do almost anything to turn back time.

Now some actors are taking it a step further and using a controversial technology to digitally ‘age’ their appearance.

In his latest film, Tom Hanks, 68, and his Forrest Gump co-star Robin Wright, 58, use AI to play the same couple at different stages of their lives.

Hanks says, “It’s a great tool because, thanks to supercomputers, you don’t have to wait for post-production to turn it into a purely technical visual representation.”

There is growing concern about the use of AI in cinema, with many actors concerned that the technology will drive people out of the film industry.

However, both Hanks and Wright have defended the use of AI, saying it eliminates the need to cast younger actors.

If you’re looking to age your photos, you’ll be happy to know that you don’t need a Hollywood budget to try out the technology.

Here’s how you can use AI to make you look younger.

What is digital aging?

Digital deaging is a relatively new VFX technique that can make actors appear significantly younger than they are.

During post-production, editors apply retouches or computer-generated overlays to an actor’s face, like a digital mask.

In the past, editors would create a 3D model of the actor’s face from detailed scans and manually apply a digital “facelift,” removing chin and wrinkles and reducing the size of the nose and ears.

That 3D model is then depicted on the actor’s face by a series of dots drawn in a grid, much like the white balls you see in motion-capture performances.

This allows the CGI model to move realistically in time with the real actors’ faces.

However, with the advent of powerful AI models, it is no longer necessary for a VFX artist to manually create the younger model.

Instead, an AI is trained on images of the actors so it can automatically generate the younger image, mapping the mask to small details on the actors’ faces for a more realistic performance.

Mrs. Wright told it Radio times: ‘They basically scour the internet and get interviews that we did when we were 19, 20, 21 years old. They literally take that data in your face.’

A major difference from older techniques is that this process can be done in near real time, rather than taking weeks or months of editing.

Hanks says the computer would take “a nanosecond” to do what previously would have taken six months.

“So we shot the scenes at Pinewood and were able to watch them straight away,” he said.

How can you use de-aging AI for yourself?

While you won’t have access to the powerful and expensive tools used by movie studios, there are some inexpensive options available.

The main difference between these options and the options used by the stars is that they are not trained on your specific images.

The AI ​​used by Hanks and Wright to appear used younger photos of them in the training data to learn what their faces actually looked like.

Cheaper, generic age filters only give a general idea of ​​what young people look like.

This means the AI ​​tends to focus on details like smoothing wrinkles and adjusting facial shape rather than creating a specific face.

As you can see in these digitally aged images, this means that the younger versions don’t always look like the person in the photo.

To digitally age these celebrity photos, MailOnline used the Wondershare AI Face Editor from Media.io.

This is a paid service that allows users to automatically add effects to their images.

You’ll need to create an account, with a free trial or paid subscription, to download unlimited images for $6.99 (£5.74) per month or $59.90 (£49.17) per year.

To age a photo, click “Upload Image” and select the file you want to edit.

On the right you’ll see some effect options, select ‘Age Filter’ and use the slider to choose how old you want the image to appear.

Click ‘Start Processing’ to generate the edited image. After about 30 seconds, your aged photo should be visible.

You have the option to download a watermark-free version by pressing ‘Download’ or by clicking the trash can icon at the top right to edit another photo.

Why is this controversial?

Despite Tom Hanks embracing the technology, many remain concerned about the growing presence of AI in the film industry.

The biggest concerns come from actors and writers who fear that generative AI will eliminate the need for studios to hire expensive people.

In 2023, the SAG-AFTRA union went on strike due to the changes in the film industry post-Covid.

Most notably, the union wanted guarantees that studios would not have the rights to use AI-generated actor likenesses in perpetuity.

Similarly, concerns increased after it emerged that some extras on set had been ‘scanned’ and asked to sign contracts giving away the rights to use their likenesses.

These fears led to a new wave of strikes in 2024, as concerns grew that AI would replace voice acting in video games.

Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe on Friends, has openly criticized Hanks’ embrace of technology, calling his new film Here an “endorsement of AI.”

Speaking about the Armchair expert podcastMs Kudrow said: ‘They could actually shoot the scene and then watch it as a younger person, and it’s ready for them to see.

“The only thing I got from that is that this is a statement of support for AI. It won’t ruin everything, but what’s left? Forget actors, what about emerging actors? It’s just about permits and recycling.”