# Deepfakes Deepfakes started as a November 2017 Reddit community where one user swapped celebrities' faces onto porn performers using open-source machine-learning code. Vice/Motherboard broke the story in December 2017, and within three months the technique drove a Reddit site-wide rule change on faked involuntary pornography. By April 2018, BuzzFeed and Jordan Peele used the same method for a fake Obama PSA warning viewers about AI-era misinformation. ## Origin On November 2, 2017, a Redditor using the handle deepfakes started the subreddit /r/deepfakes to collect his face-swap edits, most of them pornographic[3]. Motherboard reporter Samantha Cole surfaced the work in December 2017 after finding his Gal Gadot clip, a video stitched together from publicly available photos, open libraries and TensorFlow code on a home computer[1]. The Redditor told Motherboard that no studio was involved and that one person with a working knowledge of deep learning could assemble the same setup[1]. Within weeks the word 'deepfake' shifted from a Reddit handle to a common noun for neural-network face-swap video, as the subreddit grew and copycats followed the same recipe[2]. - **Platform:** Reddit - **Creator:** Redditor 'deepfakes' - **Date:** 2017 ## Overview The Deepfakes technique trains a machine-learning model on photos of a target person, then swaps that trained face onto existing video footage frame by frame[1]. The original Redditor said his pipeline relied on the open-source libraries TensorFlow and Keras, fed with publicly available celebrity images and clips[3]. Results were uneven in those first months, with tracking that slipped during fast head turns and a soft uncanny-valley look in close-up, though a quick glance could read as real[1]. Most of the edits posted to /r/deepfakes placed actors like Scarlett Johansson, Maisie Williams, Taylor Swift, Aubrey Plaza and Gal Gadot onto porn performers' bodies[1]. A smaller current ran alongside the pornographic work, best known for dropping Nicolas Cage into movies he had nothing to do with[6]. That split shaped the fallout later, when Reddit's February 2018 purge wiped the main subreddit but left the SFW Cage-edit community and the FakeApp forum online[5]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Deepfakes? Deepfakes are videos in which a person's face is swapped onto another body using machine-learning algorithms, a practice named after the Reddit user who popularized it in late 2017[1]. ### Where did Deepfakes come from? A Redditor using the handle deepfakes launched the /r/deepfakes subreddit on November 2, 2017 as a home for his AI face-swap edits[3]. ### What does Deepfakes mean? Inside the community the word quickly shifted from one person's handle to a common noun for any neural-network face-swap video[2]. ### How do you use Deepfakes? Early creators used open-source libraries TensorFlow and Keras to train a model on a target person's photos, then applied that model to existing video, with FakeApp later wrapping the process for non-coders[1][2]. ### Is Deepfakes still popular? The original subreddit was banned in February 2018 and historical Reddit traffic dried up with it, though the term stayed in mainstream use after the BuzzFeed/Peele Obama PSA brought it into misinformation coverage[5][8]. ### Who created the first deepfake? The anonymous Redditor behind the deepfakes account produced the earliest viral examples on a home computer, by his own account working alone[1]. ### What is FakeApp? FakeApp is a free desktop program released in January 2018 by a separate Redditor, deepfakeapp, built on the original deepfakes algorithm and designed for users without a technical background[2]. ### Why did Reddit ban r/deepfakes? On February 7, 2018 Reddit expanded its involuntary-pornography rule to cover faked depictions and shut down the subreddit along with r/CelebFakes and r/YouTubefakes[5]. ### Which celebrities appeared in early deepfakes? The Redditor posted edits featuring the faces of Scarlett Johansson, Maisie Williams, Taylor Swift, Aubrey Plaza and Gal Gadot[1]. ### What was the Jordan Peele Obama deepfake? A 2018 BuzzFeed PSA directed by Jordan Peele that used the technique to put words into Barack Obama's mouth as a warning about online misinformation, made with BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti[8]. ## References 1. [https://www.vice.com/en/article/gydydm/gal-gadot-fake-ai-porn]() 2. [https://www.vice.com/en/article/bjye8a/reddit-fake-porn-app-daisy-ridley]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/deepfakes]() 4. [https://www.vice.com/en/article/vby5jx/deepfakes-ai-porn-removed-from-gfycat]() 5. [https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/7/16982046/reddit-deepfakes-ai-celebrity-face-swap-porn-community-ban]() 6. [https://www.inverse.com/article/41055-reddit-just-banned-r-deepfakes-finally]() 7. [https://www.vice.com/en/article/neqb98/reddit-shuts-down-deepfakes]() 8. [https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidmack/obama-fake-news-jordan-peele-psa-video-buzzfeed]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/deepfakes Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library