The emergence of deepfakes across the web is already becoming harder to ignore. It went from a harmless AI-generated photo of "Balenciaga Pope" to explicit images for popular artists, and two companies are collaborating to help protect artists from such AI misuse.
WME, Vermillio Fights AI with AI
The Hollywood talent agency WME is working with tech start-up Vermillio to develop a way to protect its clients from the growing problem with generative AI, particularly the use of popular individuals' likenesses to create photos without their consent.
With the partnership, WME will be able to utilize the platform that Vermillio created called TraceID, which is capable of using AI technology to track images and protect its clients from being the subject of deepfakes, as reported by The New York Times.
When detected the clients will have two options ahead of them: Either they ask the creator of the AI-generated content to take it down or ask for a monetary compensation after using their likeness for the generated image.
While the second option can be explored, WME said that its primary concern was to protect its clients. WME Head of Digital Strategies Chris Jacquemin said that they have been trying to tackle the issue so their clients will have protections in place to address the rampant issue.
Currently, the only way to detect if you have deepfakes is if you find them by accident, search for them using keywords, or have someone tell you if they find one. This is not only inefficient but could also be ineffective.
Jacquemin expressed that people have "no real ability to stop it other than manually stumbling across it," and so with Vermillio, the process will be automated as the AI tech will automatically detect a person's likeness online.
WME's clients will have to provide their identifying digital data to Vermillio, which will be recorded and protected on the blockchain. These will then help authenticate images that appear online, which is a good start in solving the deepfake issue that keeps worsening.
How Bad is the Deepfake Issue?
Between audio and images, deepfakes have certainly become more dangerous in the last year. The latest issue involves pop artist Taylor Swift after explicit deepfakes of her emerged online last week, and that's not even the first case.
Several artists have been exploited in creating deepfake audio, such as the voices of Drake and The Weekend. The AI-generated song was up on Spotify and YouTube for a while before they were taken down.
Even actors are not safe from such incidents. Tom Hanks' likeness was used in a dental advertisement, which was spotted by his fans. He addressed the deepfake on his Instagram account, clarifying that he had no connections or involvement with the ads at all.
Others like Scarlett Johansson resorted to legal actions to address AI misuse by suing the AI app that used her image for an advertisement. The advertisements have since been taken down by the developers of the generative AI app.
