By Alexandros Antoniou | 6 September 2019
THE CONVERSATION — The latest photo app craze can make you look like a movie star. Zao uses artificial intelligence to replace the faces of characters in film or TV clips with images of anyone whose photo you upload to the app.
The effect is startlingly realistic and shows just how far this sort of “deepfake” technology has come. But it also highlights how great the risks have become of making your photos available online where anyone can use or abuse them – and the limitation of the law in dealing with this issue.
In case you haven’t heard, #ZAO is a Chinese app which completely blew up since Friday. Best application of ‘Deepfake’-style AI facial replacement I’ve ever seen.
Here’s an example of me as DiCaprio (generated in under 8 secs from that one photo in the thumbnail) 🤯 pic.twitter.com/1RpnJJ3wgT
— Allan Xia (@AllanXia) September 1, 2019
One of the key problems is the legal right that companies have to use your photos once you upload them to their apps or websites. Several media reports state that Zao’s terms and conditions initially gave it “free, irrevocable, permanent, transferable, and relicenseable” rights. A backlash against this has now pushed the company that makes the app, Momo Inc, to change its terms. It says it won’t use headshots or videos uploaded by users except to improve the app and won’t store images if users delete them from their accounts. […]
LEGAL PAD: “Likeness Rights: In addition to using a copyrighted work, you can be also be sued for using someone else’s name, likeness, or personal attributes without permission (most often when used commercially). The right of publicity is essentially the right to control the commercial use of your identity and image.“