Being in a scrutinised profession for two decades, LeBron James is immune to hot takes. He doesn’t care who considers him the greatest. But the fast progression of AI is doing more than just punitive damage to celebrities. According to reports, James’ lawyers sent cease-and-desist letters to those creating deepfakes of him alongside several other NBA players and celebrities.

The accuracy of artificial intelligence has provided creators with the freedom to create whatever they desire. With the spectrum open, videos of LeBron James being represented as pregnant or in other non-consensual acts were fast spreading. This didn’t affect his ego. It could possibly interfere with James’ legacy and his image in the public eye.

Kendrick Perkins fully supported the Akron Hammer in his actions. He doesn’t know if 404Media’s claim is real. However, Perk hopes it is because he wants such obscenity to stop.

“People are just f—–g bored, bro. Weird, man… You talk about doing things for clicks, this is the prime example. And I, you know, if it is true with Brun, you know, and his team sending out those cease and desists and stopping that s–t I’m all in for it, Richard,” he said on Road Trippin’.

According to 404Media, “At least three Instagram accounts that had garnered millions of views on nonconsensual AI videos of James have been deleted by Instagram,”. Meta hasn’t made any comments about receiving any lawsuits from LeBron James’ lawyers. But they are actively deleting Instagram accounts posting deepfakes of the NBA superstar.

To Perkins, this is absolutely a necessary action. Such videos can easily cultivate a negative spotlight on someone’s name. According to Perk, James is protecting the one thing that’s most important to him.

“The one thing that you have in this world besides money, you have one name. One name, bro. One name. Protect that m———–g name. So, I’m with it, man. Somebody got to set the example for a lot of this b——t to stop. I’m not mad at it,” he continued.

But it’s not just LeBron James who is affected by such videos. Richard Jefferson his stand against AI benefits humanity.

The dangers of artificial intelligence’s growth

Just like Kendrick Perkins, Jefferson showed support for his former Cleveland teammate. But he was alarmed about the greater issue. LeBron James preventing such videos from being made about himself isn’t just merely about protecting his image. The potential of AI is only growing, and hence, this early resistance could help protect humans around the world.

“I am saying though that I don’t think that this is a great idea, right? They could do whatever they want with Perk. They could do whatever they want with my image, with your image, Ally, saying whatever, right? Like imagine, you know what I’m saying? Imagine the stupid things that go on the internet. And I just don’t think that that’s always going to be a safe place,” he said on the show.

Take it from James’ vantage point. For those who know LeBron James, they could see some light-hearted fun in such videos. But he is also a massive public figure with a huge following. Young kids aspire to be like him. Let alone, his own children use social media and the internet on a regular basis. To see such videos floating around, depicting James in derogatory forms, could severely affect them.

Additionally, this move doesn’t just serve him. It’s for the safety of all athletes and anybody with a public platform. With such tools at hand, it barely takes time to create such videos. LeBron James’ action sets a precedent that doing these things isn’t right.

“Somebody can just create this like in no time. In two seconds, you could speak into an app and it will bring up the visualization of this in a matter of… It’s for athletes, it’s for Cooper Flagg, it’s for female athletes, and the protections of them to make sure that idiots can’t just be making weird videos and posting them on the internet,” Jefferson commented.

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