Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to create fake celebrity pornography videos by placing the faces of movie stars onto the bodies of porn performers.
According to the website, other Reddit users are now employed a growing range of “easy-to-use” editing software to create their own face-swapped sex films and are posting them to deepfakes’ chat page, which has more than 15,000 subscribers.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot, Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, and Game of Thrones actor Maisie Williams are among those who have been featured in the X-rated clips.
Most of the editing apps employ machine learning, which uses photographs to create human masks that are then overlaid on top of adult film footage, says Motherboard.
“All the tools one needs to make these videos are free,” the website says. The apps also come with “instructions that walk novices through the process”.
Is it legal?
No, says The Sun, since the fake porn videos are created without the consent of the celebs featured in them.
Andrew Murray, a professor of law at the London School of Economics, told the newspaper: “To put the fact of an identifiable person onto images of others, and then sharing them publicly, is a breach of Data Protection Law.”
Murray says that stars could sue the creators of fake porn for defamation if the videos are “received as genuine images and the celebrity, as a result, is viewed less favourably by members of society”.
The videos could also be seen as form of harassment, he told The Sun, which celebrities could report to the police.
Questioning reality
The ease with which plausible fake videos can be made is causing widespread concern, with fears that it heralds an era when “even the basic reality of recorded film, image or sound can’t be trusted”, reports The Guardian.
Mandy Jenkins, from social news company Storyful, told the newspaper: “We already see it doesn’t even take doctored audio or video to make people believe something that isn’t true.”
Reddit user deepfakes has told Motherboard that the technology is still in its infancy.
Deepfakes said they intended to keep improving the porn-creation software so that users can “can simply select a video on their computer” and swap the performer’s face with a different person “with the press of one button”.
-
How Putin misunderstood his past victoriesIn Depth Though Vladimir Putin has led Russia to a number of grisly military triumphs, they may have misled him when planning the invasion of Ukraine
-
Crossword: August 18, 2025The Week's daily crossword
-
Codeword: August 18, 2025The Week's daily codeword puzzle
-
Deep thoughts: AI shows its math chopsFeature Google's Gemini is the first AI system to win gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad
-
The jobs most at risk from AIThe Explainer Sales and customer services are touted as some of the key jobs that will be replaced by AI
-
Why AI means it's more important than ever to check terms and conditionsIn The Spotlight WeTransfer row over training AI models on user data shines spotlight on dangers of blindly clicking 'Accept'
-
Are AI lovers replacing humans?Talking Points A third of Gen Z singles use tech as a 'romantic companion'
-
Palantir: The all-seeing tech giantFeature Palantir's data-mining tools are used by spies and the military. Are they now being turned on Americans?
-
Grok brings to light wider AI antisemitismIn the Spotlight Google and OpenAI are among the other creators who have faced problems
-
Intellectual property: AI gains at creators' expenseFeature Two federal judges ruled that it is fair use for AI firms to use copyrighted media to train bots
-
Is AI killing the internet?Talking Point AI-powered browsers and search engines are threatening the death of the open web
