Bruce Willis denies he's sold rights to his face to Digital deepfake company Deepcake

Bruce Willis in a Russian ad
This is not actually Bruce Willis in an ad - it's deepfake. Photo credit: Supplied

Bruce Willis is denying he sold the digital rights to his face to deepfake company Deepcake.

The actor's agent has rubbished reports made last week that he had been part of a first-of-its-kind agreement with a digital company.

Media widely reported Willis had made the deal after being forced to retire from acting due to being diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder which affects speech.

"Please know that Bruce has no partnership or agreement with this Deepcake company," Willis' agent told the BBC.

Deepfakes use artificial intelligence to create realistic videos of celebrities and politicians.

A deepfake of Willis was used in a Russian ad for telecoms company Megafon last year, with his face appearing on that of a Russian actor for the commercial.

Deepcake worked on the original advert with the digital twin of Willis, but told the BBC it had had full access to Willis and his team for the work.

"What he definitely did is that he gave us his consent (and a lot of materials) to make his Digital Twin," the company said.

Willis himself is quoted on Deepcake's website, apparently happy with his computer-generated 'twin'.

"I liked the precision of my character. It's a great opportunity for me to go back in time," the quote reads.

"The neural network was trained on content of Die Hard and Fifth Element, so my character is similar to the images of that time."