AI Greta Garbo Stars in SKF Ball-Bearings Ad as Estate Weighs Film Role

The advert is the first time Garbo's likeness has been used in moving images since her death, according to the report. Her second-ever screen role was in a 1921 promotional film involving Gothenburg-based SKF. The new AI performance is intercut with shots of ball-bearings.

Craig Reisfield, one of three relatives who manage Garbo's legacy, told The Guardian he would not rule out casting the AI Garbo in other roles. "I won't say no, especially having seen what I've seen. It's pretty incredible and lifelike," he said. "So what's to say that you can't bring Greta Garbo back in some kind of fashion in a film role?"

Reisfield said he was "flabbergasted" when he saw the AI version of his great-aunt created for SKF's publicity. He described the production as "startling" and "very impactful," adding that it was "touching" from the perspective of someone who had known her. He said he was "totally impressed" by the mannerisms, dress, facial images and voice the AI could capture and manipulate. Reisfield, a Swedish-American who used to drive for Garbo and saw her often for family occasions when she lived in New York, made the comments after viewing the advert.

The SKF performance was created by humans prompting AI models including China's Seedream and Google's Nano Banana Pro. Unusually for AI film-making, the creators did not feed moving or still images of Garbo into the AI because the material was protected by copyright. Instead, they used text prompts to create her likeness, including her ice-blue eyes and wavy blond bob. A human actor then played her role with the AI-generated appearance overlaid, and her voice was recreated from a recording from an early film.

The result appears to have gone beyond the "uncanny valley," the problem in which an AI rendering becomes more strangely implausible as it approaches an actual likeness. The AI Garbo's lines, however, may not match those written for her by MGM studio writers. At one point, she sounds like Liz Truss complaining about the "disgrace" of Britain's cheese imports when she says, "around 20% of all global energy is lost to friction: a terrible waste."

The advert arrives as several big film studios invest in AI startups or collaborate with new AI studios. Veteran directors including Ron Howard and Paul Schrader are working on AI-enabled films, while a new generation of AI-native film-makers such as Kavan the Kid and Gossip Goblin are using AI to build large audiences outside the conventional studio system. Critics have called the practice of reanimating dead performers "ghostploitation"; it has also been used in the case of actor Val Kilmer, who died last year.

Asked whether the real Garbo would have wanted to continue performing as an AI-enabled actor, Reisfield pointed to her career. "She was at the forefront of cinema in the silent film era. She made the transition to 'talkies' and dominated box office receipts," he told The Guardian. "So to imagine her as an AI-enabled actor given her track record and ability to captivate and connect with audiences of both men and women isn't inconceivable."

Reisfield said the custodians of the rights to Garbo's voice, name, image and publicity aimed to "preserve, protect, and enhance" her legacy and were "very discerning" on partnerships. Her likeness has been used posthumously by fashion houses Ferragamo, Gucci and Louis Vuitton, but the AI performance for SKF is her first in moving images. The advert signs off with Garbo's line from Grand Hotel: "I want to be alone."

Editor's Summary

Greta Garbo has been AI-reanimated for a 99-second SKF advertisement, marking her first posthumous moving-image performance. Her estate says it would consider an AI film role, while the advert highlights both advances in AI likeness generation and continuing debate over "ghostploitation." The campaign also connects to Garbo's early 1921 promotional film for the Gothenburg-based company.