Deepfakes – The good and the bad

This new technology is getting a lot of press attention at the moment, it’s like something out of Black Mirror. Reddit has their own sub-reddit dedicated to it (for now), though adult sites and social networks have a complete ban on it, and celebrities are not liking it one bit.

Basically through machine learning and a free app, you can pretty much put anyone’s face on to another face in a video, as long as you have an inventory of photos of them. Already lots of porn videos are surfacing with the faces of popular actresses and sports personalities.

Even though the technology is in the early stages and by no means perfected, I can see the future having things such as watching a movie where you and your friends are the featured cast in it, or when you order a movie you can choose what actors you wish to play, and for what role, particularly useful if you do not like the original actor.

Other uses could include old abandoned shows coming back but having the original cast as if nothing at all had changed. Or if on a current show perhaps someone in the main cast had died, they could still pretty much feature in the show (if they agreed through contract, or whatever), perhaps pretty weird for the family, but cela vi.

I’ve watched a few of the clips and I must say had I not known it was a deepfake, they are very convincing, particularly when using body doubles.

On a plus side for celebrities, if a sex tape ever gets leaked they can always say it was a deepfake :)