Thoughts about the Faceapp challenge and deepfakes

The internet has found a new fidget spinner - The Faceapp Challenge. Yes, I’m talking about the app that uses AI to show us how we will look when we get old. D’oh!

The Faceapp Challenge, like the Ice Bucket Challenge, or the Kiki Challenge has the same common denominator that “breaks the internet” every time - the stupidity of human intellect clubbed with a cognitive bias known as the bandwagon effect.

It all starts with fun and games - just a harmless picture of you looking like a 65 year old posted on social media. You’re amused, your friends want to try it out too, you get your 15 seconds of instant gratification. End of story, right?

Wrong. Faceapp User Agreement authorises them with a perpetual, irrevocable, non exclusive, royalty free, worldwide, fully paid and transferable license to basically do whatever they want with your picture.

The deepfake tech behind Faceapp can be used in incredibly malicious ways. Could deepfake AI be used to potentially plant false criminal evidence against someone? Could it be used in aiding the distribution of fake news, hate speech or revenge porn content to the naive, hungry for social content, people of the world? What about extortion?

I’m not thinking out loud about a sci-fi dystopia. This is already happening.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Anger, anxiety, rage, fear, empathy and kindness

Give them a chance

Impostor Syndrome