The quest for the perfect digital human

Rapid tech advances are driving down costs and eradicating difficulties in making full digital clones

New: Gift this subscriber-only story to your friends and family

LONDON • Every Hollywood actor is desperate to cling to their youth. Now, Will Smith, the star of Independence Day and Men In Black, can be 23 forever. But unlike his Botoxed peers, the secret of Smith's fresh face is a new breed of digital doppelganger, offering unprecedented realism.

In his latest film Gemini Man, the 51-year-old actor plays a retired assassin whose younger clone is sent to kill him. The 23-year-old Smith clone, known in the movie as Junior, is not the real actor hidden under layers of make-up or prosthetics. Instead, he is a completely digital recreation, constructed from his skeleton to the tips of his eyelashes by New Zealand-based visual effects studio Weta Digital.

Already a subscriber? 

Read the full story and more at $9.90/month

Get exclusive reports and insights with more than 500 subscriber-only articles every month

Unlock these benefits

  • All subscriber-only content on ST app and straitstimes.com

  • Easy access any time via ST app on 1 mobile device

  • E-paper with 2-week archive so you won't miss out on content that matters to you

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on October 11, 2019, with the headline The quest for the perfect digital human. Subscribe