Swedish ball-bearing ad revives Greta Garbo with US, Chinese AI

STOCKHOLM — "Are we rolling?" the AI likeness of Hollywood 1930s movie star Greta Garbo lilts, in an unlikely advert ​for Swedish ball-bearings maker SKF.

The advert has sparked debate, praise and ridicule, but underscores how sophisticated AI is increasingly encroaching on media from script-writing to animation.

Garbo, one of the ‌most famous stars of Hollywood's "golden era", died in 1990 at the age of 84, though she retired from movies and public ⁠life decades earlier in 1941.

SKF said it ​had used AI to "recreate" the Swedish-American star, who ⁠featured in a film over a century ago promoting Swedish industries abroad, including SKF.

"One of my ‌first films was for SKF, ‌and now I'm back for my last," the AI-generated character, dressed in a ⁠silky champagne-colored blouse, says in the advertisement.

The Garbo double was ⁠not made using archival photographs or footage, SKF said. Copyright issues meant it had been created with text prompts, said Per Nilsson, head of communication and brand at the company.

For image generation the creators used tools Seedream 5 Pro from China's ByteDance and Google Gemini's Nano Banana Pro, while for motion ByteDance's Seedance 2 and 2.5 as well as Kling AI ‌from Beijing-based tech firm Kuaishou, SKF said.

The voice was trained with ​AI using Garbo's voice from one of her early films — the only archival material fed to the AI for which SKF got permission — while a human actor helped get the pacing and cadence right.

"I think we did it in a respectful way," Nilsson said. The production was developed in collaboration with the Greta Garbo estate and her family.

'Superpowered' by AI

While not the first time a campaign had used a deceased individual's likenesses to promote a product, the ​ad highlights what can now be achieved, said Henry Ajder, an AI advisor and researcher, calling it "synthetic resurrection."

"This ‌is a trend ‌that has been ⁠going back quite some years now, and AI has superpowered in a way," he said.

Not all were impressed.

"Poor Greta Garbo," wrote film critic Peter Bradshaw of British newspaper The Guardian, in a one-star review of the clip, adding that it gave us "another reason to resent AI."

Some current stars are also wary ‌of the trend.

"I would like ​to avoid being in a tampon commercial 20 years ‌after I'm dead," actor George ⁠Clooney said at ​the Venice Film Festival last month.

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