Since the end of May, "AI fraud is breaking out nationwide" has been on the top of the search, and frauds using AI face-swapping technology have been occurring frequently.
Recently, China Galaxy Securities issued an announcement that fraud using "AI synthesis technology" may gradually spread to the securities industry. According to the announcement, a well-known economist said he was contacted by someone using "AI face replacement" technology to deceive investors and carry out stock recommendation activities by means of video and voice.
Previously, there have been a number of places such as Harbin, Fuzhou and other Internet police reported about the AI face swap fraud, someone was cheated 4.3 million in 10 minutes.
The "AI face swap" fraud is rampant at the moment, social media platforms have also emerged a number of marketing "AI face swap tutorial" account.
These accounts released a video, the main content is the character hand a wave to change a face. The video will also be accompanied by brainwashing music, simple actions, as well as "AI face replacement tutorial, live real-time face replacement, video real-time face replacement, custom face replacement" and other related text.
If a user replies below the video, they will be guided in the comment section and asked to add their contact details.
The uploaders behind these accounts claim to be success teachers in the self media era, constantly chasing hot spots and paying to teach various traffic codes.
The only thing is, this time the "AI face replacement" is still in the regulatory gray area, and the users involved in it may not be careful, from "knowledge payment" to "today's statement".
After AI scam, "face-swapping" tutorials swept the platform
At the end of May, many netizens found that the popular actress "Yang Mi" and "Dili Hotba" personally in a women's clothing brand live with goods. They interacted enthusiastically and introduced professional, attracting a large number of netizens for a short time.
But look carefully, the anchor's face is not quite like the star himself, if the anchor turns his head too much, will actually instantly "reveal the original shape", change another face to. Some people even see multiple "Yang Mi" "Hotba" in different live rooms at the same time. A time, "star anchor" bilocation has the art, everywhere there is "Yang Mi", each is "hotba".
After the media exposure, people found out that some of the live broadcast in the case of unmarked, with AI face replacement technology, so that the anchor on a star face, misleading consumers.
The idea of almost impulsive consumption because of the false star effect, people are more and more palpitated about the magic of AI face replacement.
The video face-swapping technology has been around for a long time, as early as 2019, a face-swapping app called "ZAO" was a hit, users just need to upload a frontal photo of themselves, they can put their own features on the face of a movie character, and star on the same stage.
At the beginning of 2021, Avatarify topped the App Store's free app list in China, but within a week, the app was taken down from the App Store in China.
The technology for these software often comes from DeepFake open source technology, relying on big data and artificial intelligence deep learning mechanisms to replace the facial images of people in established videos or pictures.
Although the face replacement technology was not realistic enough at the time, it has enabled some short video creators to attract traffic.
In March 2021, a video account on TikTok through face-swapping technology, the production of face-swapping Tom Cruise practice golf, performing magic, telling jokes and other videos, released not long after harvesting more than 200,000 fans.
At that time, the threshold for such technology was high. The video maker claimed to have used the open source DeepFaceLab algorithm and other video editing tools, by combining traditional visual effects with DeepFake technology, which took a full two months to produce before and after. In addition, the hardware required the use of a pair of NVIDIA RTX 8000 GPUs to train the AI model in order to achieve the fake-like effect.
With the explosion of technology in the past two years, not only the emergence of almost foolproof operation of the relevant software to change the face, the degree of realism has also risen again and again, and now can be done in real time to change the face, and thus applied to the above-mentioned field of live.
But from the entertainment field to the commercial field, AI face replacement is still in the gray area.
In previous reports, some legal professionals believe that the use of AI face replacement technology, there should be significant signs to avoid public confusion. And without the consent of the star to use its portrait live with goods, may be suspected of several infringements.
In March 2023, a special effects artist on a short video platform synthesized images of kissing female celebrities by replacing the face of the male lead in a TV series with his own face, and used this to promote and sell "special effects face-swapping tutorials", which also sparked a lot of controversy, and the account "special effects synthesizer Hong Liang (accepting apprentices) "The company has been blocked by the platform for 15 days.
The current short video platform for this type of behavior proposed to regulate. For example, on May 9, 2023, Jitterbug released the "platform specification and industry initiative on AI-generated content", which mentioned that the creator should significantly identify AI-generated content, while virtual humans need to be registered on the platform, and users of virtual human technology need real-name authentication.
And in terms of policy regulation, the "Internet Information Services Deep Synthesis Management Regulations" that came into effect in January this year also point out that services that provide intelligent dialogue, synthetic human voice, face generation, immersive imitation scenes and other services that generate or significantly change the function of information content should be marked prominently to avoid public confusion or misidentification. It also requires that no organization or individual shall use technical means to delete, tamper with, or conceal the relevant logo.
In the face of the platform and regulatory authorities around the blockade, changing the face of the star to attract traffic the road does not work. Some bloggers found that breaking the law with their bodies won't work and turned to sell the so-called AI face-swapping course.
79 yuan can "change" 30 faces
Previously, the CCTV financial exposure "anchor AI face replacement star for live broadcast" mentioned that the purchase of a set of AI implementation of face replacement model online needs 35,000 yuan.
After only a month or so, the price of AI face replacement is rapidly civilianizing. Today, for only 79 yuan, an AI face replacement package can help you change 30 faces.
The Leopard Change" searched on social media platforms and found videos about "AI face replacement tutorials, live face replacement, video call face replacement", and the commodity links below the videos sold the corresponding courses - not only providing "AI The newest and most popular of these is the "AI Face Changing Live Room" toolkit + tutorial, while "the package will teach you to change your face live, 79 yuan can unlock 30 faces".
The store shows that 13 copies of the course have been sold. The Leopard Change did not receive a response to its inquiry, and as of press time, the product in question has been taken offline.
Most of the accounts do not directly advertise the course in the video, but use words like "take you to play AI face changing" to attract users to ask.
In addition, the seller will also through a large number of zombie number without other content, batch forwarding the same video, and then in the account profile or private message in exchange for contact information.
Leopard Change learned from a seller's customer service that different packages are priced differently, including a $588 introductory version, an $888 basic version, a $1,388 advanced version, and a $2,888 professional version.
Customer service said that if used for live banding, it is recommended to buy the professional version of 2888 yuan: "We have a good deal for this activity, permanent free use, package updates, and subsequently this price will become an annual card."
A related industry practitioners said that similar AI face replacement technology mainly from foreign open source projects: "The recent AI technology explosion, many technologies are open source, and updated very quickly. Domestic self-research technology is also available, but it is all done by companies with investment, and the effect is not ideal."
Similar open source projects are available on the official website with tutorials for use. Some people carry to the domestic after the start of the package to sell courses and tutorials, the cost is almost zero.
For example, many AI face replacement videos on video sites such as B station and Jitterbug are generated by DeepFaceLab. DeepFaceLab is easy to install, fast to update, strong in function, with many models, rich in parameters and low requirements for device configuration.
Other popular software, such as Fake App and OpenFaceSwap, can be found on the Internet as related resources.
In this regard, Leopard Change verified with the customer service of the selling course whether the software sold belonged to open source project and hoped to compare the use interface, but the customer service declared that their own products belonged to internal software and it was not convenient to disclose.
Other bloggers engaged in AI technology popularization told "Leopard Change" that this is to cut leeks by information gap.
Where is the use of AI face swap?
The AI face-swapping technology seems to be gaining the attention of lawbreakers only, compared to other AI technologies that have received a lot of attention since their birth. The role of "face swapping" always reminds people of the gray industry, after the maturity of real-time face swapping technology, I did not expect the first to reduce the cost of illegal seems to be.
In fact, AI face changing technology is often used in the field of film and television dramas, some of the film and television dramas that have been forced to hide because of bad artists, but also by virtue of AI face changing technology to see the light of day. And when real-time face replacement becomes possible, AI face replacement technology may also find use in the field of live broadcast.
Through AI face changing, brands can let anchors in different live broadcast rooms share the same face, which can strengthen the connection between brand IP and anchors on the one hand, and reduce the loss of anchors and get rid of the reliance on big anchors on the other.
The previously popular digital human live technology is still facing the embarrassing situation of immature technology, high requirements for arithmetic power and insufficient interaction ability. Relatively speaking, AI face replacement technology is more economical and practical.
Moreover, AI face replacement technology has been applied in some special scenarios. For example, for domestic small and medium-sized cross-border e-commerce merchants, the labor cost of foreign anchors and models is slightly high, resulting in excessive operational pressure. Therefore, some TikTok merchants use AI face-swapping to turn domestic anchors and models with good English speaking skills into foreign anchors and models to reduce labor costs.
There are already e-commerce companies and technology companies working on AI face swap technology. The leading e-commerce live industry Yao Wang Technology had issued an announcement on May 15 that it signed an agreement with Xiao Bing about "live e-commerce artificial intelligence technology/product strategic cooperation", in which the two sides launched comprehensive cooperation in the fields of live broadcasting, short video and e-commerce on matters such as AI technology, product development and promotion. This includes the research and development of AI face-changing technology.
Tencent's Youtu Lab, daily Ptu joint creation of AI face change play, etc., is also trying to be able to complete face replacement, face reproduction, face synthesis and even full-body synthesis, virtual environment synthesis and other functions.
Correspondingly, the detection technology for AI face replacement is also developing. Enterprise search shows that on October 4, 2022, Baidu's patent application for "face identification method, device and computer program product" was published. The patent relates to the field of artificial intelligence technology, specifically deep learning technology, which can be used for face identification scenarios, improving the accuracy of face image identification results.
For the abuse of AI face replacement technology in the gray industry, similar situations should be controlled under the gradual improvement of regulation and identification technology. For now, more related science and anti-fraud knowledge is needed to prevent AI face swap fraud.