7 ms·

What are the non-malicious uses for something like this? Haven't actually got around to pondering that yet.

by s_Hogg 7y ago

boilerupnc 7y ago
First Person Artist Museum experiences [1] [1] https://www.dezeen.com/2019/05/24/salvador-dali-deepfake-dali-musuem-florida/ https://www.dezeen.com/2019/05/24/salvador-dali-deepfake-dal... [EDITED]
m12k 7y ago
Personalized meme gif generation? Send your friend a gif with their face on Bruce Lee to tell them they are kicking ass
mc32 7y ago
“Joke” apps, so you can put yourself in a video as a hero heroine, villain villainess. Put yourself as a singer or whatever on a music video, etc. Punking your friends too. In a productive context in filmmaking you can have fun with doubles and stuntmen and stunt women. Or if you have the rights to license the face and likeness of an actor actress and they can be in five films, ten films in a year (forgetting about brand dilution). John Wayne can be in a new Western movie,
- ebg13 7y ago
  > Punking your friends too. "Punking" does not qualify as non-malicious.
  - mc32 7y ago
    That depends on your relationship and liberties you take.
  - scarygliders 7y ago
    It does if you and your friends share the same sense of humour.
- Oras 7y ago
  already there and its called Zao https://twitter.com/AllanXia/status/1168049059413643265 https://twitter.com/AllanXia/status/1168049059413643265
  - godelski 7y ago
    Wait, this is a one shot? The poster is cherry picking results, right?
    - sct202 7y ago
      He posted a ton of video examples if you scroll down thread on Twitter, and some are better than others. It's shocking how accessible the technology is now that a phone app is letting you do faceswaps on short video clips with one picture and basically no effort on the part of the user.
Mic92 7y ago
Seems useful for memes?
amq 7y ago
It could be useful for film production where you could replace the stuntman's face with the real actor's one.
- guerrilla 7y ago
  And replace the low paid actor's face with a high paid actor's face...
  - novaRom 7y ago
    Savings! You also can produce movies then in low-payment countries.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
  This has been routine in films since at least Jurassic Park (1993).
- bsenftner 7y ago
  Doing exactly this, replacing stunt doubles, is what I wrote and acquired a global patent back in '08. I tried to create a personalized advertising agency: put people into the advertisements themselves, driving the new car, wearing the new fashions, taking the luxury vacation. Problem was, I started my effort in '04, had a working pipeline by '08 - but none believed it was possible. Even when I'd demonstrate right in front of them, investors thought it was a trick. I eventually went bankrupt and quit. Today, we have deepfakes, where we could have had personalized adverting a decade ago.
  - larryjustin 7y ago
    That is neat and all but do we want that?
    - bsenftner 7y ago
      For the fashion industry, it becomes a fantasy visualization platform - see yourself in all manners of clothing, hair and makeup.
nelsonic 7y ago
Agree that this feels like a tool for malicious intent. But, maybe reviving dead celebrities or family members? Either way this tech seems inevitable, nerds showing off their skills to other nerds. Next question: does it make CCTV footage obsolete as a form of permissible evidence in court?
- phs318u 7y ago
  If you had hardware that generated per frame signatures using PK encryption? Private keys and hardware can be compromised but at least it raises the bar and weeds out casually malicious actors. Having said that, I have no idea if such devices exist nor how they might work.
  - michaelt 7y ago
    Point your signature-per-frame camera at a TV screen showing a faked video. Instant signed fake video.
antisemiotic 7y ago
Porn.
- dominotw 7y ago
  haha obvious answer.
TulliusCicero 7y ago
Putting your own face (or a friend's face) into a movie or TV show. Or going the other way, use a real video of your friend and replace their face with a famous actor.
DMcVeigh 7y ago
An interesting use could be to anonymise people in public videos. You could use randomly generated faces (which other emerging tech can produce) and effectively remove peoples recognizable features by "replacing" them.
- cj 7y ago
  That’s interesting. I wonder if that would be sufficient to forgo the typical release forms required when filming in certain public places.
- chris5745 7y ago
  Reminds me of the anonymizing suits in “A Scanner Darkly”.
  - drusepth 7y ago
    Actually, you could probably get exactly that effect if you modify the script to pull from a pool of source faces per frame instead of a single face.
- BurningFrog 7y ago
  An alternative to blurring could be useful. But who should they look like? Maybe that spot could be sold...
  - filoleg 7y ago
    Doesn't have to be an existing person at all: https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/ https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/ I like your idea about selling spots though, definitely something I have never thought of before.
- rohan_shah 7y ago
  Politicians and celebrities are all about their faces. They wouldn't allow for anonymizing their footage even though the 'bad' guys will want to exactly use their faces on fake videos for exactly the same reasons.
derivagral 7y ago
On a network like FB that has your photos, mix your own face into the advertisement! The video can have the pre-computed target, and the network can generate yours from all that free photo storage/tagging...
- zawerf 7y ago
  My initial reaction is that this counts as malicious. But thinking about it some more, I at least don't mind clothing ads using me as the model. (Assuming there's opt in and all) It's better than mentally swapping out the skin tone and body type to see if it was really the clothes that looked good or the attractive model.
tyingq 7y ago
Standing in for me for many tedious videoconference meetings :)
krasin 7y ago
Privacy. A commercial video shot in public today is usually required to blur faces of people who didn't give explicit consent. Replacing faces with stubs is a nice alternative, as long as the target face is from a person with a consent. I am not a lawyer, though.
- gchadwick 7y ago
  > Replacing faces with stubs is a nice alternative, as long as the target face is from a person with a consent. Why use a real face? You could generate a fake one using a GAN. You may even be able to build a fully automatic anonymize tool that can identify the broad characteristics of each face present (skin tone, age, male/female etc) then use that to generate replacement faces.
- jobigoud 7y ago
  Maybe it could be coupled with GAN generated faces.
golergka 7y ago
Habituating people to the fact that this exists, therefore lessening the impact of malicious uses.
mkr-hn 7y ago
I could see someone using it to update home movies after transitioning. Dysphoria is probably not great for reminiscing.
divbyzer0 7y ago
Localisation of films\tv shows\educational material. Often English language films are poorly dubbed for local (mostly non-English speaking) markets. Having a local/recognisable actor filling the role would be a big improvment.
- mc32 7y ago
  That’s a little more complicated. Now you’re replacing a face and body and either having them voice dialogue separately (dubbing themselves) or you’re putting a local face to a foreign film (and subbing?) I can see them modifying the actual original actor to speak in a local language however to sync with the localized dialogue. That said, your proposition is also interesting. It raises some questions though. Imagine an indie French film where the protagonist (or whoever) gets replaced by a Hollywood actor. Or an indie Angolan film which gets the treatment. There would be lots of purists (for many reasons) protesting this kind of option.
sakopov 7y ago
I recently watched a Deep Fake video of The Shining with Jim Carrey's face over Jack Nicholson's. It was so damn good you couldn't even tell it wasn't actually him playing the role. This was all fun and games, but one thing that immediately comes to mind is movies staring people who are no longer alive.
- tashoecraft 7y ago
  I’ve been telling people that there will now always be new movies with Tom Hanks. Even after he has passed, there’s so much screen time to use and audio recordings that he could forever be in new movies.
- BurningFrog 7y ago
  Imagine if when you click up a movie/show on Netflix, you get to pick which actors play the main parts.
- Angostura 7y ago
  Grand Moff Tarkin says hello.
scarmig 7y ago
Famous actors could license their face for use. This could even last past their death, allowing them to star in movies decades after their flesh death. If an actor dies while filming a movie, it can be required in the contract that they allow their face to be generated for scenes that haven't been filmed yet. They could also use this to use a younger face as they age.
- fawak 7y ago
  I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Stan Lee's face had been scanned like crazy before his death in order to keep the cameos going.
  - JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
    I hope they don’t do that. I’d just find it more sad and creepy than enjoyable.
bitL 7y ago
As a part of a pro movie making suite like AfterEffects or DaVinci Resolve - you can take somebody else to act in a scene and then replace with physique of your chosen actor, e.g. you do stunts, your actor can't appear at a given geographic location at a given time, somebody had a facial injury/scars you want to get rid of etc. Plenty of valid uses. Then you could e.g. do a render in Blender and replace "avatars" with real human faces, avoiding "uncanny valley" in your animation. Travel industry can have uses as well - these days many places offer video recordings of their clients doing some dangerous activity; for those that can't do them yet still want the video they could offer pre-baked scenes where taking a selfie could kill somebody and then replace their face/body with some green screen footage of their client using this app and some pose estimator/body switcher. Or just show you how much would you enjoy some beach property in some hot location with a video featuring you etc. This would make it useful for custom ads featuring you as well.
martin-adams 7y ago
Storytelling of historical characters where we have common knowledge of what they looked like (e.g. Einstein). Reshooting scenes of movies without having to get key actors back on location. Immersive storytelling where you get to be placed inside a movie. Actor safety where they can go through transformations for a shoot, such as extreme weight loss or weight gain. I can really only think of it in terms of entertainment. There may be some therapy benefits which are yet to get discovered, but I would imagine that's a whole new level of complexity.
- JoeAltmaier 7y ago
  Presenting yourself online (think Skype) as more symmetrical, more imposing, more pleasing. For business advantage while negotiating.
  - sanlyx 7y ago
    Every time I hit HN I can't help but be amazed at how sad the future is getting
    - JoeAltmaier 7y ago
      Ha! People who wear power suits, makeup, expensive haircuts and shoes are already doing all this. Technology just means you don't have to spend time in the stylist's chair to accomplish it any more!
      - EpicEng 7y ago
        Until you have to, you know, actually meet someone in person.
        JoeAltmaier 7y ago
        I've done entire contracts without ever meeting in person.
heeen 7y ago
https://youtu.be/2ZKPnuUFwOk?list=PL84DB158CAABE4E07&t=633 https://youtu.be/2ZKPnuUFwOk?list=PL84DB158CAABE4E07&t=633 https://youtu.be/KH1V6CHO1Jk?list=PL84DB158CAABE4E07&t=388 https://youtu.be/KH1V6CHO1Jk?list=PL84DB158CAABE4E07&t=388
MayeulC 7y ago
I see a lot of concern regarding fake pornographic videos. And I get it. But on the other hand, people could release videos they do not want to appear in with a credible alternative to blurring faces (though I guess you could still fingerprint facial expressions). If this gets mainstream enough, "revenge porn" would also lose a lot of its current value, being easily dismissible as "fake". (And so would genuine photographical evidence...) Journalists could use it to hide their sources from the public. If this gets reaaly good, it would become a nice alternative to motion capture for cinematography (pose estimation, including facial expressions). Then swap in the 3D model, or concept art of the person you want to appear on screen. Significantly reduce the costs for makeup, and enable more in post-prod. That was probably already available for big teams with big budgets, but this makes it more mainstream.
dominotw 7y ago
Movies/Media with you, your friends and family as the cast? Personalized entertainment.
craigsmansion 7y ago
Replacing all those hacks and pretenders in every movie ever [1] with the glory that is Nicolas Cage. 1. including "Face off"
wait-a-minute 7y ago
Deep analysis of the body for any visible signs of tumors or diseases. Stroke detection software. Home and car entry without needing to carry any keys. Much faster entry into airports, where we need passports or security checks anyway. Lots of entertainment possibilities.
jcims 7y ago
I got a good laugh out of this one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kJO_L9gr5Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kJO_L9gr5Y probably only funny if you watch these folks regularly
bsenftner 7y ago
Personalized adverting: see yourself / your family using/enjoying products you're yet to purchase. Cars, clothing, trips...
JoblessWonder 7y ago
A different git repository has a "manifesto" of sorts explaining why they think it is ethical to release: https://github.com/deepfakes/faceswap#faceswap-has-ethical-uses https://github.com/deepfakes/faceswap#faceswap-has-ethical-u...
rohan_shah 7y ago
I thought of a non-malicious use. Celebrities could sell the 'rights' to their faces and then ordinary people could 'act' in commercials and later on even movies and then just stick the face of the celebrities?! xD Celebrities will become cheaply available to 'star' in your next Netflix series. (But unfortunately, even if celebrities don't sell their faces, they'll be stolen!)
TrackerFF 7y ago
Say you need to replace an actor in a movie. Great potential there

What are the non-malicious uses for something like this? Haven't actually got around to pondering that yet.

by s_Hogg 7y ago

What are the non-malicious uses for something like this? Haven't actually got around to pondering that yet.

First Person Artist Museum experiences [1] [1] https://www.dezeen.com/2019/05/24/salvador-dali-deepfake-dali-musuem-florida/ https://www.dezeen.com/2019/05/24/salvador-dali-deepfake-dal... [EDITED]

m12k 7y ago

Personalized meme gif generation? Send your friend a gif with their face on Bruce Lee to tell them they are kicking ass

mc32 7y ago

“Joke” apps, so you can put yourself in a video as a hero heroine, villain villainess. Put yourself as a singer or whatever on a music video, etc. Punking your friends too. In a productive context in filmmaking you can have fun with doubles and stuntmen and stunt women. Or if you have the rights to license the face and likeness of an actor actress and they can be in five films, ten films in a year (forgetting about brand dilution). John Wayne can be in a new Western movie,

ebg13 7y ago
> Punking your friends too. "Punking" does not qualify as non-malicious.
- mc32 7y ago
  That depends on your relationship and liberties you take.
- scarygliders 7y ago
  It does if you and your friends share the same sense of humour.
Oras 7y ago
already there and its called Zao https://twitter.com/AllanXia/status/1168049059413643265 https://twitter.com/AllanXia/status/1168049059413643265
- godelski 7y ago
  Wait, this is a one shot? The poster is cherry picking results, right?
  - sct202 7y ago
    He posted a ton of video examples if you scroll down thread on Twitter, and some are better than others. It's shocking how accessible the technology is now that a phone app is letting you do faceswaps on short video clips with one picture and basically no effort on the part of the user.

Mic92 7y ago

Seems useful for memes?

amq 7y ago

It could be useful for film production where you could replace the stuntman's face with the real actor's one.

guerrilla 7y ago
And replace the low paid actor's face with a high paid actor's face...
- novaRom 7y ago
  Savings! You also can produce movies then in low-payment countries.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
This has been routine in films since at least Jurassic Park (1993).
bsenftner 7y ago
Doing exactly this, replacing stunt doubles, is what I wrote and acquired a global patent back in '08. I tried to create a personalized advertising agency: put people into the advertisements themselves, driving the new car, wearing the new fashions, taking the luxury vacation. Problem was, I started my effort in '04, had a working pipeline by '08 - but none believed it was possible. Even when I'd demonstrate right in front of them, investors thought it was a trick. I eventually went bankrupt and quit. Today, we have deepfakes, where we could have had personalized adverting a decade ago.
- larryjustin 7y ago
  That is neat and all but do we want that?
  - bsenftner 7y ago
    For the fashion industry, it becomes a fantasy visualization platform - see yourself in all manners of clothing, hair and makeup.

nelsonic 7y ago

Agree that this feels like a tool for malicious intent. But, maybe reviving dead celebrities or family members? Either way this tech seems inevitable, nerds showing off their skills to other nerds. Next question: does it make CCTV footage obsolete as a form of permissible evidence in court?

phs318u 7y ago
If you had hardware that generated per frame signatures using PK encryption? Private keys and hardware can be compromised but at least it raises the bar and weeds out casually malicious actors. Having said that, I have no idea if such devices exist nor how they might work.
- michaelt 7y ago
  Point your signature-per-frame camera at a TV screen showing a faked video. Instant signed fake video.

antisemiotic 7y ago

Porn.

dominotw 7y ago
haha obvious answer.

TulliusCicero 7y ago

Putting your own face (or a friend's face) into a movie or TV show. Or going the other way, use a real video of your friend and replace their face with a famous actor.

DMcVeigh 7y ago

An interesting use could be to anonymise people in public videos. You could use randomly generated faces (which other emerging tech can produce) and effectively remove peoples recognizable features by "replacing" them.

cj 7y ago
That’s interesting. I wonder if that would be sufficient to forgo the typical release forms required when filming in certain public places.
chris5745 7y ago
Reminds me of the anonymizing suits in “A Scanner Darkly”.
- drusepth 7y ago
  Actually, you could probably get exactly that effect if you modify the script to pull from a pool of source faces per frame instead of a single face.
BurningFrog 7y ago
An alternative to blurring could be useful. But who should they look like? Maybe that spot could be sold...
- filoleg 7y ago
  Doesn't have to be an existing person at all: https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/ https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/ I like your idea about selling spots though, definitely something I have never thought of before.
rohan_shah 7y ago
Politicians and celebrities are all about their faces. They wouldn't allow for anonymizing their footage even though the 'bad' guys will want to exactly use their faces on fake videos for exactly the same reasons.

derivagral 7y ago

On a network like FB that has your photos, mix your own face into the advertisement! The video can have the pre-computed target, and the network can generate yours from all that free photo storage/tagging...

zawerf 7y ago
My initial reaction is that this counts as malicious. But thinking about it some more, I at least don't mind clothing ads using me as the model. (Assuming there's opt in and all) It's better than mentally swapping out the skin tone and body type to see if it was really the clothes that looked good or the attractive model.

tyingq 7y ago

Standing in for me for many tedious videoconference meetings :)

krasin 7y ago

Privacy. A commercial video shot in public today is usually required to blur faces of people who didn't give explicit consent. Replacing faces with stubs is a nice alternative, as long as the target face is from a person with a consent. I am not a lawyer, though.

gchadwick 7y ago
> Replacing faces with stubs is a nice alternative, as long as the target face is from a person with a consent. Why use a real face? You could generate a fake one using a GAN. You may even be able to build a fully automatic anonymize tool that can identify the broad characteristics of each face present (skin tone, age, male/female etc) then use that to generate replacement faces.
jobigoud 7y ago
Maybe it could be coupled with GAN generated faces.

golergka 7y ago

Habituating people to the fact that this exists, therefore lessening the impact of malicious uses.

mkr-hn 7y ago

I could see someone using it to update home movies after transitioning. Dysphoria is probably not great for reminiscing.

divbyzer0 7y ago

Localisation of films\tv shows\educational material. Often English language films are poorly dubbed for local (mostly non-English speaking) markets. Having a local/recognisable actor filling the role would be a big improvment.

mc32 7y ago
That’s a little more complicated. Now you’re replacing a face and body and either having them voice dialogue separately (dubbing themselves) or you’re putting a local face to a foreign film (and subbing?) I can see them modifying the actual original actor to speak in a local language however to sync with the localized dialogue. That said, your proposition is also interesting. It raises some questions though. Imagine an indie French film where the protagonist (or whoever) gets replaced by a Hollywood actor. Or an indie Angolan film which gets the treatment. There would be lots of purists (for many reasons) protesting this kind of option.

sakopov 7y ago

I recently watched a Deep Fake video of The Shining with Jim Carrey's face over Jack Nicholson's. It was so damn good you couldn't even tell it wasn't actually him playing the role. This was all fun and games, but one thing that immediately comes to mind is movies staring people who are no longer alive.

tashoecraft 7y ago
I’ve been telling people that there will now always be new movies with Tom Hanks. Even after he has passed, there’s so much screen time to use and audio recordings that he could forever be in new movies.
BurningFrog 7y ago
Imagine if when you click up a movie/show on Netflix, you get to pick which actors play the main parts.
Angostura 7y ago
Grand Moff Tarkin says hello.

scarmig 7y ago

Famous actors could license their face for use. This could even last past their death, allowing them to star in movies decades after their flesh death. If an actor dies while filming a movie, it can be required in the contract that they allow their face to be generated for scenes that haven't been filmed yet. They could also use this to use a younger face as they age.

fawak 7y ago
I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Stan Lee's face had been scanned like crazy before his death in order to keep the cameos going.
- JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
  I hope they don’t do that. I’d just find it more sad and creepy than enjoyable.

bitL 7y ago

As a part of a pro movie making suite like AfterEffects or DaVinci Resolve - you can take somebody else to act in a scene and then replace with physique of your chosen actor, e.g. you do stunts, your actor can't appear at a given geographic location at a given time, somebody had a facial injury/scars you want to get rid of etc. Plenty of valid uses. Then you could e.g. do a render in Blender and replace "avatars" with real human faces, avoiding "uncanny valley" in your animation. Travel industry can have uses as well - these days many places offer video recordings of their clients doing some dangerous activity; for those that can't do them yet still want the video they could offer pre-baked scenes where taking a selfie could kill somebody and then replace their face/body with some green screen footage of their client using this app and some pose estimator/body switcher. Or just show you how much would you enjoy some beach property in some hot location with a video featuring you etc. This would make it useful for custom ads featuring you as well.

martin-adams 7y ago

Storytelling of historical characters where we have common knowledge of what they looked like (e.g. Einstein). Reshooting scenes of movies without having to get key actors back on location. Immersive storytelling where you get to be placed inside a movie. Actor safety where they can go through transformations for a shoot, such as extreme weight loss or weight gain. I can really only think of it in terms of entertainment. There may be some therapy benefits which are yet to get discovered, but I would imagine that's a whole new level of complexity.

JoeAltmaier 7y ago
Presenting yourself online (think Skype) as more symmetrical, more imposing, more pleasing. For business advantage while negotiating.
- sanlyx 7y ago
  Every time I hit HN I can't help but be amazed at how sad the future is getting
  - JoeAltmaier 7y ago
    Ha! People who wear power suits, makeup, expensive haircuts and shoes are already doing all this. Technology just means you don't have to spend time in the stylist's chair to accomplish it any more!
    - EpicEng 7y ago
      Until you have to, you know, actually meet someone in person.
      - JoeAltmaier 7y ago
        I've done entire contracts without ever meeting in person.

heeen 7y ago

https://youtu.be/2ZKPnuUFwOk?list=PL84DB158CAABE4E07&t=633 https://youtu.be/2ZKPnuUFwOk?list=PL84DB158CAABE4E07&t=633 https://youtu.be/KH1V6CHO1Jk?list=PL84DB158CAABE4E07&t=388 https://youtu.be/KH1V6CHO1Jk?list=PL84DB158CAABE4E07&t=388

MayeulC 7y ago

I see a lot of concern regarding fake pornographic videos. And I get it. But on the other hand, people could release videos they do not want to appear in with a credible alternative to blurring faces (though I guess you could still fingerprint facial expressions). If this gets mainstream enough, "revenge porn" would also lose a lot of its current value, being easily dismissible as "fake". (And so would genuine photographical evidence...) Journalists could use it to hide their sources from the public. If this gets reaaly good, it would become a nice alternative to motion capture for cinematography (pose estimation, including facial expressions). Then swap in the 3D model, or concept art of the person you want to appear on screen. Significantly reduce the costs for makeup, and enable more in post-prod. That was probably already available for big teams with big budgets, but this makes it more mainstream.

dominotw 7y ago

Movies/Media with you, your friends and family as the cast? Personalized entertainment.

craigsmansion 7y ago

Replacing all those hacks and pretenders in every movie ever [1] with the glory that is Nicolas Cage. 1. including "Face off"

wait-a-minute 7y ago

Deep analysis of the body for any visible signs of tumors or diseases. Stroke detection software. Home and car entry without needing to carry any keys. Much faster entry into airports, where we need passports or security checks anyway. Lots of entertainment possibilities.

jcims 7y ago

I got a good laugh out of this one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kJO_L9gr5Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kJO_L9gr5Y probably only funny if you watch these folks regularly

bsenftner 7y ago

Personalized adverting: see yourself / your family using/enjoying products you're yet to purchase. Cars, clothing, trips...

JoblessWonder 7y ago

A different git repository has a "manifesto" of sorts explaining why they think it is ethical to release: https://github.com/deepfakes/faceswap#faceswap-has-ethical-uses https://github.com/deepfakes/faceswap#faceswap-has-ethical-u...

rohan_shah 7y ago

I thought of a non-malicious use. Celebrities could sell the 'rights' to their faces and then ordinary people could 'act' in commercials and later on even movies and then just stick the face of the celebrities?! xD Celebrities will become cheaply available to 'star' in your next Netflix series. (But unfortunately, even if celebrities don't sell their faces, they'll be stolen!)

TrackerFF 7y ago

Say you need to replace an actor in a movie. Great potential there