NRL superstar Nathan Cleary has engaged lawyers and plans to take action after an AI generated image of him was slapped across cars at the State of Origin decider.
As revealed by The Sydney Morning Herald, Cleary’s lawyers will pursue civil and criminal charges over the flyers which were left on cars in Sydney Olympic Park’s P1 carpark.
Hundreds of fans returned to their cars after Cleary’s Blues lost the decider to Queensland at Accor Stadium.
They found flyers on the windscreens which depicted Cleary in a NSW jersey with his arm around a woman. Both people appeared to be AI generated images.
The flyers read, “Way to go Blues! I knew you had rizz! I’m taking this one home!”.
A line in small print then read, “This flyer was printed a week ago” – which was obvious given the Blues lost the game.
“Rizz” is an abbreviated word for charisma.
It is unclear what the flyers were attempting to sell and there was no visible website or phone number available.
Cleary’s lawyer Daniel McGirr said the fake image of Cleary is becoming all too common.
“It’s a disgrace what they’re doing with these guys’ brands,” McGirr told the Herald.
“There’s a couple of avenues that will go down the track of. One of them is civilly, but they are also obtaining a benefit by deception, which is criminal.
We don’t know who is affiliated with these brands – or whether they are real brands to start with.
“They might be scams. Say the punter on the street thinks, ‘Nathan Cleary is aligned to this, I trust him and he’s my hero’. They click on it, and they could be taken to some dark web or something like that and get scammed.
It’s a criminal matter. With AI, this will get worse and worse until something is done about it.”
McGirr says it is now common for sports stars and other celebrities to have their image or name stolen to illegally promote products.
“There’s a bigger story here about protecting the players as well,” McGirr said.
“Something needs to be done from an NRL perspective, because the NRL merchandising section should be the most concerned.”
Cleary has several bona fide affiliations but is typically picky with what brands he lends his name to.
