An investigation has uncovered that more than 250 British celebrities have fallen victim to deepfake porn, among thousands of others.
Channel 4 News delved into the five most popular deepfake websites and discovered a list of about 4,000 celebrities, 255 of whom are British.
These include women actors, TV personalities, musicians, and YouTubers whose faces have been digitally imposed onto explicit material using artificial intelligence, though their identities remain undisclosed.
The research revealed that over a three-month span, five websites collectively received 100 million views.
Kathy Newman, a presenter on Channel 4 News and one of the victims, expressed her discomfort, stating, “It feels really creepy that there are people who put this together and I can’t see them and they can see this imaginary version of me, this fake version of me.”
While sharing such content without consent became illegal in the UK as of January 31 under the Online Safety Act, the creation of such material remains legal. The bill was enacted in response to the surge in deepfake porn generated by AI and applications.
