YouTube is expanding its AI deepfake surveillance capabilities to Hollywood. This means some celebrity AI videos may soon disappear.
The platform’s similarity detection feature searches YouTube for AI deepfake content and flags celebrities who have signed up for the program. Celebrities can use this to track and request removal of their own AI content on YouTube (removals will be evaluated against YouTube’s privacy policy and not all requests will be approved). YouTube began testing the feature with content creators last fall. The company expanded the program to politicians and journalists in March. YouTube says the tool targets celebrities regardless of whether they have a YouTube account or not.
The system requires participants to submit identification and a selfie video of themselves. (Similarity detection focuses specifically on faces, rather than voices or other identifying characteristics.) Removal of deepfakes is not guaranteed, and there are also protected use cases such as parody and satire. YouTube previously said that when content creators used the feature, only a “very small number” of their videos were requested to be removed.
YouTube compared similarity detection to Content ID, a system for finding (and removing) copyrighted material on the platform. The difference is that with Content ID, rights holders can choose to monetize other users’ videos that use their material and split the revenue. That’s not yet possible with similarity detection, but it clearly seems like the direction the industry is heading.
Earlier this month, YouTube announced a feature that allows creators to use AI to digitally replicate their own likeness and insert it into their videos. Talent agency CAA (which YouTube credits with supporting the expansion of similarity detection) has a database full of client biometric data that can be kept by entertainers or deployed for commercial opportunities. TikTok star Kirby Lame has effectively sold the rights to her image, which is used to sell products online. (The deal faces several challenges and it is not clear whether a deal has been reached. Business Insider. )
In an interview with hollywood reportersome talent managers are framing the explosion of AI deepfakes as a way for the entertainment industry to engage with fans. Some celebrities may want to get their own AI content if they are eligible. It also has the potential to proliferate fan-created AI content. And in the future, celebrities may welcome AI deepfakes of themselves as long as they get paid.
