Pornhub, Reddit Ban AI-Generated Fake Porn Videos
Over the past two weeks, a new Reddit community for creating fake porn videos took off, courtesy of new machine learning algorithms and editing tools. It’s an alarming concept for multiple reasons, given the way revenge porn has been used to target individuals. A user community focused on the creation of these edits, r/deepfakes, quickly sprang up on Reddit, while deepfake videos have been popular on Pornhub.
Today, both companies announced they were taking steps to end the practice. On Reddit’s front, the r/deepfakes community has been suspended. A company spokesperson told Motherboard:
Reddit strives to be a welcoming, open platform for all by trusting our users to maintain an environment that cultivates genuine conversation. As of February 7, 2018, we have made two updates to our site-wide policy regarding involuntary pornography and sexual or suggestive content involving minors. These policies were previously combined in a single rule; they will now be broken out into two distinct ones. Communities focused on this content and users who post such content will be banned from the site.
The “involuntary pornography” category is an interesting one. Previously, it would’ve applied to people whose sexual activities were filmed without their consent or knowledge. Now, it can apply to anyone who finds their likeness stapled into a pornographic film or image.
Meanwhile, Pornhub has stated it will delete deepfake videos that punch such a gaping hole in user consent. “We do not tolerate any nonconsensual content on the site and we remove all said content as soon as we are made aware of it,” a site spokesperson said in the same report. “Nonconsensual content directly violates our TOS [terms of service] and consists of content such as revenge porn, deepfakes or anything published without a person’s consent or permission.”
At press time, there were still plenty of various faked videos on the site, but that should change going forward. Regardless, this kind of video fakery is going to present significant problems for content authenticity going forward. It’s always been possible to edit photographs and fake video — Stalin was notorious for this kind of thing, long before Photoshop existed. Previously, however, these edits required a substantial level of expertise. Going forward, they very well may not.
That, in turn, could force a reevaluation of the primacy we put on video evidence. Today, having video of something is often treated as tantamount to having proven it. In the future, that may not be the case. As AI and deep learning continue to advance, the sophistication of such fakery will grow, and spotting the differences will be increasingly difficult to do.
Continue reading
Intel Launches AMD Radeon-Powered CPUs
Intel's new Radeon+Kaby Lake hybrid CPUs are headed for store shelves. Here's how the SKUs break down and what you need to know.
Review: The Oculus Quest 2 Could Be the Tipping Point for VR Mass Adoption
The Oculus Quest 2 is now available, and it's an improvement over the original in every way that matters. And yet, it's $100 less expensive than the last release. Having spent some time with the Quest 2, I believe we might look back on it as the headset that finally made VR accessible to mainstream consumers.
NASA Created a Collection of Spooky Space Sounds for Halloween
NASA's latest data release turns signals from beyond Earth into spooky sounds that are sure to send a chill up your spine.
Astronomers Spot Earth-Sized Rogue Planet Wandering the Galaxy
Astronomers have identified more than 4,000 exoplanets orbiting other stars but just a few "rogue planets" wandering the galaxy without a star to call home. A new study claims to have spotted one of these worlds, and it may be a small, rocky world like Earth.