The Socceroos star stares at the camera as he strides through an enormous atrium, the sound of his football boots on polished concrete echoing around him. Suddenly, he spawns four digital clones that peel off out of view to re-emerge in different settings around the world.<\/p>\n
This scene from a social media video is fake and generated by artificial intelligence. But it has been authorised by the very real 22-year-old footballer, Cristian Volpato, the latest professional athlete to licence and monetise his AI likeness.<\/p>\n
Draped in a white linen suit with his feet on the sand, Volpato\u2019s \u201csynthetic twin\u201d turns towards a photographer as the limestone stacks of the Twelve Apostles tower behind him. Another dominates a large digital billboard wearing a football jersey. One smiles into a mirror while adjusting a sharp grey suit.<\/p>\n
This video was produced by a new company that acts as an AI licensing agent for professional athletes. Experts believe it is one small part of a nascent online industry that could transform the future of image rights<\/a> and sports content.<\/p>\n As bookmakers, broadcasters and brands increasingly use athletes\u2019 images in AI generated content without their permission, some players are fighting back.<\/p>\n Digital twins<\/p>\n In mid-September, Volpato, who plays for Italian Serie A club, Sassuolo, struck a deal with the California-based company Callandor to license his AI image.<\/p>\n As part of the deal, Callandor was given exclusive rights to Volpato\u2019s digital likeness, voice, biometric profiles and performance data. The company will monetise his AI image by landing brand deals, taking a cut, and help restrict content that does not have his approval.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n From Los Angeles, Callandor\u2019s co-founder, Michael Fisk, tells Guardian Australia he\u2019s in the business of making \u201csynthetic twins\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cCristian is constantly training,\u201d Fisk says. \u201cHe\u2019s constantly out there playing. If he has any free time whatsoever, he\u2019ll probably want to spend it with family and friends, so he loses on a lot of opportunities on brand placements.<\/p>\n \u201cA synthetic twin could be used 24-7, year-round by brands. Assuming it\u2019s approved, right?\u201d<\/p>\n Founded in February, Callandor has a small stable of athletes, including Brazilian footballer Jorginho and American sailor Chris Poole. Its campaigns are only in the pilot phase, but Callandor is pursuing an array of opportunities beyond traditional advertising.<\/p>\n Fisk, a former executive at Sony Pictures and MGM, talks of creating AI-generated book voiceovers with foreign language editions. His team is also plotting apps that offer fans a personal relationship with a synthetic twin.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, the holy grail of an athlete is to have that one-on-one interaction with fans,\u201d Fisk says.<\/p>\n He raises the prospect of creating an app that monitors how people play football. A digital clone of Volpato would give real-time instructions.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s realising I\u2019m not handling the ball well [so] his synthetic twin can tell me, \u2018Hey, you should be doing this and this and this\u2019,\u201d says Fisk.<\/p>\n \u201cVolpato would never be able to do that one-on-one with [them].\u201d<\/p>\n Volpato\u2019s deal with Callandor is at the cutting edge of AI rights deals, but he isn\u2019t the first to embrace the technology. In June, Brazilian superstar Neymar licensed his AI likeness to a Chinese-owned entertainment platform that created short videos published during the FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n These projects are being launched as governments across the world consider basic regulation of AI. At the moment, player contracts with major Australian sporting leagues make no mention of AI.<\/p>\n But technology isn\u2019t waiting for regulation to catch up and Fisk says his synthetic twin clients are blurring the lines between real and fake.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s becoming almost impossible to detect, that look and feel, the difference, particularly when you see it on a mobile device,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u2018We\u2019re watching a race\u2019<\/p>\n William Saunders leads a small Sydney based start-up, Hyperknown, that\u2019s trying to cut similar deals. He says athletes are beginning to realise that if they don\u2019t monetise their AI image, others will.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, the AFL told its gambling partner Sportsbet to stop using AI images of players<\/a> without their consent. This was prompted by a complaint from the players\u2019 union, which is considering whether stricter rules should be negotiated.<\/p>\n \u201cSportsbet shows us what happens when companies and technology get ahead of consent,\u201d Saunders says.<\/p>\n \u201cVolpato represents the counter-move: people establishing their rights before others start making decisions about their identities.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re watching a race between what technology can do and what people have actually authorised.\u201d<\/p>\n Many in the Australian sports industry, including content creators, bookmakers, broadcasters and athletes themselves, have started embracing the technology.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Australian cricketer Travis Head personally appeared in an ad for the broadcaster Kayo. He joked that his AI clone had already finished filming the ad, before throwing to vision of him riding a flying kookaburra<\/a>.<\/p>\n Brand deals and endorsements have become major money makers for athletes, with some securing multimillion dollar contracts. It remains unclear whether brands will be willing to pay as much for an AI clone, as opposed to the real deal.<\/p>\n But Saunders, whose company has only just launched, says the opportunities are enormous. He talks of AI clones selling products in foreign languages in nations athletes have never visited.<\/p>\n \u201cThe next trust signal won\u2019t just say \u2018made with AI\u2019,\u201d he says, referencing a tag often used by social media companies. \u201cIt will say \u2018made with this person\u2019s permission\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cAI can make content abundant. It can\u2019t manufacture someone\u2019s permission. That\u2019s becoming a new commercial requirement.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018A tangle of different interests\u2019<\/p>\n Jonathan Harlen, an expert in intellectual property law at Southern Cross University, says the rise of AI brokers is \u201cthe obvious next step\u201d in a \u201csupercharged global market\u201d.<\/p>\n From a legal perspective, he says this new industry presents \u201ca tangle of different interests and rights\u201d that need to be carefully negotiated.<\/p>\n