Feb 14, 2023

Hany Farid on the Rise of Deepfake Pornography As Twitch Streamers Speak Out

From NBC News

They appeared in deepfake porn videos without their consent. Few laws protect them.

By Bianca Britton

Artificial intelligence-generated pornography featuring the faces of nonconsenting women is becoming more pervasive online, and the issue is spilling into the world of popular influencers and streamers...

Hany Farid, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, said deepfakes are a phenomenon that is “absolutely getting worse” as it’s become easier to produce sophisticated and realistic video through automated apps and websites...

“Now suddenly the people who are vulnerable are people who have very small footprints online,” said Farid. “The technology is getting so good that it can generate images from relatively small training stats, not these hours and hours of video that we used to need...”

Specific platforms that host nonconsensual sexual imagery need to be held accountable, rather than individual accounts and creators, Farid said. “If you really want to tackle this problem, go upstream,” he said. “That’s where all the power is...”

Read the full interview.

Hany Farid is a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information and EECS. He specializes in digital forensics.

Last updated:

February 16, 2023