Although deepfake technology was developed in the 1990s, it has gained popularity only in 2017 in the Reddit online communities. According to this study, conducted by Deeptrace (Amsterdam-based cybersecurity company) in 2019, 96% of the deepfakes on the internet are porn videos. The technology continues to develop to this day, finding new applications.
However, an enormous amount of deepfake pornography available online has led us to the point when news about another celebrity’s leaks arouses more suspicion than interest. All things considered, let’s have a closer look at deepfake porn and its abnormal spread, as well as ways to verify a sex tape in the fake news era.
What Is Deepfake Porn?
Basically, deepfake pornography or so-called “synthetic porn” is a genre in which faces of porn performers in already existing porn videos are replaced with those of celebrities. It is created by using deepfake technology – a realistic manipulation of audio and video materials using artificial intelligence (AI).
Deepfakes are based on generative adversarial networks (GAN) – machine learning-based algorithms that can generate new content from a given set. Thus, by applying a deepfake technology to an already published porn video, it is possible to create any adolescent fantasy – from Henry Cavill playing with sex toys for men to gangbangs with Emma Watson.
What Makes It Work?
But why, considering all the opportunities a deep technology opens up – from discrediting political campaigns to bringing Old Hollywood stars from the dead, we’ve concentrated on creating fake porn videos?
First of all, people simply cannot refuse to peek into someone else’s bedrooms and to go through others’ dirty laundry – especially if these “others” are famous people. The possibility to find nude paparazzi photos of Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow (from 1997!) or leaked celebrity sex tapes (Kim Kardashian, Colin Farrell, Jennifer Lopez, and the list goes on) just in a few clicks only confirms the statement.
So, if some of them turn out to be fake, will it make any difference? Probably not. And if the real ones are said to be fake? Not a problem either. The amount of deepfakes available on the web today starts slowly devaluating the importance of leaking some celebrity’s personal media files in the first place – and you cannot say it is a bad thing.
Besides, deepfake technology continuously develops, while becoming a part of a fake porn video without their consent remains an undesirable event in many celebrities’ lives. But who knows how things will change in a few years from now? Maybe we’ll be seeing some commercial spots with celebs promoting the best male sex dolls or ben wa balls, but this time – created legally.
How to Detect a Deepfake Video?
Putting ethical and legal concerns aside, some may still want to be able to differentiate a leaked sex tape from a deepfake porn. No matter whether it is the desire for authenticity or unwillingness to waste their time on fakes, it became quite challenging to detect a deepfake video today unless it’s an amateurish one.
Still, here is a set of things to look out for when determining if a video is real or a fake – and those apply not only to porn:
- an absence of blinking and unnatural eye movement in general
- teeth and hair that look weird (e.g., a lack of outlined individual teeth or flyaway hairs)
- weird or unnatural facial expressions and lack of emotions
- distorted body movements
- shadows and lighting that look wrong
- blurring and distortion of images
You can also find software tools available online that help detect deepfakes. However, one of the easiest ways is to check them on social media platforms, such as Twitter, as their new policies ban deepfakes and other AI-manipulated and deceptive content.
Summary
People will always be interested in other people’s private lives. That is why celebrity photo leaks and sex tapes are always highly discussed in the media and social media platforms.
And deepfake technology has allowed us to go even further and satisfy our steamy fantasies about celebrity crushes by creating a new type of pornography. It is completely fake, controversial, and disputable, but still – it is popular.
Although synthetic porn remains one of the most common – and successful – ways to apply deepfake technology, this is not its only use. The film industry already benefits from it – for example, de-aging actors in The Irishman – we’ll see what’s next!