You Won’t Believe Your Eyes

Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) and deep learning are being leveraged with face-swapping software to create videos that convincingly portray celebrities, politicians and non-public figures as doing or saying things they never did or said (nicknamed “deep fakes”). While there are numerous benign uses of AI-enabled face-swapping software, the most popular use currently appears to be AI-generated fake pornography or non-consensual porn, which involves superimposing the face of a celebrity onto the body of a porn actor. And it is not difficult to imagine additional malevolent uses. What legal recourse is available for those victimized by an AI-altered video? 

In this article, Loeb & Loeb partner Melanie J. Howard, chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Protection practice, examines the IP, privacy and other legal issues associated with deep fakes, as well as the challenges of combating AI-altered video in an era where technology has progressed more rapidly than the law.