China’s deepfake celebrity porn culture stirs debate about artificial intelligence use
- Newspaper’s investigation into how web forums and e-commerce platforms let users superimpose other people’s pictures on pornographic videos raises ethical questions about how the technology is used
- Some sellers offer to superimpose female celebrities’ faces onto pornographic film actresses for less than US$1
The widespread use of artificial intelligence to create deepfake celebrity porn videos for Chinese internet users has raised fresh questions about the use and abuse of the technology.
While China’s strict internet controls should, in theory, prevent people from accessing pornographic content, an investigation by The Beijing News published on Thursday uncovered numerous platforms where people were selling services that offered to swap the faces of celebrities, or members of the public, onto images of porn stars for less than US$1.
The use of face-swap technology to create videos that discredit or shame high-profile public figures has already prompted growing concern in the United States, and the newspaper report has spurred a fresh debate about the ethics of using it in this way in China, a world leader in the technology.
One discussion named “Face swap + female celebrity’s surname” on Baidu Tieba, one of China’s most popular internet forums, offered to sell face-swapped porn for as little as 4 yuan (less than 60 US cents) per video, while a package of 700 videos cost 158 yuan, the report said.
Sellers also listed “customised face-swap” porn videos on the second-hand e-commerce app Xianyu, with prices starting from 20 yuan per minute of footage.
The listing said buyers could provide celebrity or personal photos, according to the report.
One seller nicknamed Ah Chang told reporters, apparently under the impression they were potential customers, that they sold customised porn videos for 3 yuan per video if the buyer bought more than 15 at once, and received payment through the popular e-wallet platforms WeChat Pay and Alipay.