Keanu Reeves pays AI firm thousands a month to stop online imitators: report

Keanu Reeves often gets called the nicest coolest A-lister in Hollywood But he also has become known to cause problems for himself and his fans The John Wick and Matrix star is ostensibly the largest part impersonated celebrity on the internet which has forced him to pay a Seattle-based AI company thousands of dollars a month to find his online imitators and get companies like TikTok and Meta which owns Facebook and Instagram to shut them down Reeves battle against online scammers using his likeness for romance scams political messaging and other purposes is described in a new story by The Hollywood Reporter A writer for the entertainment industry publication went undercover in a social media way to spend time communicating with a fake Reeves account At one point in June Keanu Reeves tried to get the writer Rebecca Keegan to buy a bogus fan club membership in order to meet the actor in person for sure This entreaty came around the same time that the real Reeves was posing for photos on the red carpet with his girlfriend artist Alexandra Grant at the premiere for the John Wick spinoff Ballerina Keegan revealed HOLLYWOOD CALIFORNIA - JUNE L-R Alexandra Grant and Keanu Reeves attend the world premiere of Ballerina presented by Lionsgate at TCL Chinese Theatre on June in Hollywood California Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer Getty Images Keegan also spent time with information scientist Luke Arrigoni He runs a three-year-old company Loti AI which has become an industry leader in likeness apparatus protection It helps celebrities athletes business leaders and other residents figures protect their images from unauthorized AI-generated content and deepfakes With Reeves permission Arrigoni revealed to Keegan that Loti had issued nearly account takedown orders on the Speed actor s behalf over the past year Reeves enlisted Arrigoni to do this work because he is well aware of the way his image is being manipulated online He cares very much about how his fans are treated and he s very invested in trying to solve this challenge Arrigoni advised the Hollywood Reporter Reeves has become a draw for such scams because pretty much everybody everywhere on Earth likes him Keegan wrote But in addition to being likable Reeves also is mysterious Keegan announced He doesn t maintain a presence on social media and he limits what he shares about himself publicly Meanwhile the opportunists have used Reeves likeness in a variety of approaches In one subgenre of fakery Reeves appears to hold up a T-shirt with political messaging on it sometimes pro-left a few pro-right Keegan revealed In one doctored image he seems to be endorsing Donald Trump In another he is raising awareness of the Indigenous children who were forced into abusive boarding schools in Canada Largest part of these are photoshopped alterations of a Getty Images picture of Reeves attending a motorcycle fair in Italy in Once Loti issues its takedown orders to social media platforms it typically takes the platforms about hours to resolve the trouble Unfortunately in that brief window scammers can do a lot of damage Keegan revealed According to the latest information from the FBI Americans stated million in losses to confidence and romance scams in Keegan published The targets of such scams tend to be people over the age of with Keegan also reporting on the episode of a -year-old woman who lost specific to someone online impersonating Kevin Costner This fake Costner convinced the woman to make weekly bitcoin deposits saying the money would be used to start a new production company She also was lonely and restless as her marriage was failing her career had ended and her kids and grandkids were busy with their own lives Keegan wrote Fake Costner s messages represented several welcome male attention a fantasy to drop into when real life got too real At one point this woman received a photo of the Yellowstone actor leaning against the wooden headboard of a bed Fake Costner was holding up a piece of paper that read It s really me Kevin Costner I love you so much i can t wait to meet you