Celebrity porn was made with photoshopped images to look like famous people posing nude. The hoax victims include celebrities Scarlett Johansson, Taylor Swift, Maisie Williams, Aubrey Plaza, and Gal Gadot on Reddit.
With deep learning networks of interconnected nodes autonomously run computations on input data. In this case, the algorithm on porn videos was trained on celebrities’ faces. Using this AI “training,” the nodes eventually arrange themselves to complete a particular task. In this case, the task was manipulating video to create convincing fakes.
These types of apps present all kinds of legal, ethical, and moral questions. Unfortunately, similar AI involved technology allows a person’s image to be easily misused without their consent or knowledge. And in 2020 there still aren’t a lot of protections to prevent their use.
Giorgio Patrini, the founder and CEO of Sensity AI, and its researchers will monitor and report these types of malicious deepfake bots whenever they find them. They are trying to understand the motivations of the apps creators, users, and the impacts on victims’ lives. “Indeed, the data we share in this report is only the tip of the iceberg,” Patrini said.
