DeepFake Marketing: Face-swapping gets real with AI-based technology

Imagine juggling between multiple jobs at once at different locations while actually comfortably sitting at home. Seems impossible? Well, it is not. Hour One, a Tel-Aviv-based startup, hires people’s faces to sell to the companies for marketing and educational videos. 

The video transformation company makes use of people’s resemblance through artificial intelligence to make synthetic characters of them. This strategy is deepfake marketing.

How does face swap artificial intelligence work?

Hour One uses deepfake technology. It takes the rights of people’s faces and creates a collection of realistic characters. They use an ultra-HD camera to record the person speaking and make different facial expressions with a green screen in the background. AI software then stores this data. 

The technology can make multiple video footage of the concerned person in any language. The person receives a payment whenever a company uses his/her face for their videos. 

The company searches through various applicants and shortlists people of different genders, races, and ages to have a variety. As per a review by MIT technology, the company has a pool of 70% women, 25% white people, and 80% synthetic characters below 50 years of age presently.

Use Cases

Hour One sells the synthetic characters to companies that include them in commercial and promotional videos. The organizations add text with the face. Then, they use a text-to-speech program to produce a synthetic voice synchronized with characters’ facial expressions and mouth movements. 

At present, over 40 businesses in the e-commerce, entertainment, and health industries use Hour One’s services. Berlitz, a language school that makes video courses, is one of the major clients of Hour One.

Deepfake Marketing: Is it Good or Bad?

Hour One has reduced the requirement for studio technicians, film crews, and actors. Thus, one can make marketing and advertising campaigns cost-effective using synthetic characters.

However, like most technological advancements, it has also led to doubts. Is it ethical to use synthetic characters to review services and products? 

Due to fast-evolving hackers and breaches, synthetic characters’ safe and ethical use remains doubtful. We are yet to ensure that the content created using face swap artificial intelligence is harmless and non-controversial.