As artificial intelligence grows more advanced, it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish AI-generated from authentic media. These rapid advancements in AI create a new outlet for pornographic content.  

In 2017, an anonymous Reddit user combined the terms deep learning and fake to create deepfake, which is now used to refer to any fake media where a person’s face is replaced by another’s in an image or video. Deepfakes can also change the voice, movements and facial expressions of the people affected.  

Non-consensual pornography constitutes the majority of AI-generated “deepfakes” and is the reason deepfake content is so widespread.

While the first true deepfake was created in 2017 by the Reddit user who coined the term, face swap technology has existed for far longer. In the 1990s Adobe Photoshop was commercialized, so it became possible for anyone to edit the face of a person onto someone else’s body. Today, apps like TikTok and Snapchat utilize AI to face swap quickly and more convincingly than ever before.

Laura Helen Marks, Tulane University English professor and scholar on the pornographic genre, emphasized the effect that explicit deepfakes have on both parties involved.  

“We see pornography as illegitimate. We see it as embarrassing to do those deepfakes to somebody as an act of violence and humiliation,” Marks said. “It’s the non-porn person who we are saying is being victimized … Their bodies are being exploited in ways that they didn’t consent to, and their work is not taken seriously by many people, so the violation we see as belonging to the person whose face is being shown.”  

A common misconception is that sexually explicit deepfakes primarily target celebrities and politicians. A report from Sensity AI, an organization that monitors the production of deepfakes, found that only 35 pornographic deepfakes of American politicians were created in 2020. 

Sensity reported in 2019 that 96% of deepfakes were pornographic and non-consensual. Ninety-nine percent of those deepfakes targeted women. 

“How are you going to make something as humiliating for a male politician? Well, not showing them having sex with a woman. Apparently, all you need to do for a woman is to show her having sex,” Marks said.  

Data scientists encourage users to examine media content for strange behavior and patterns of speech, facial distortion and lack of blinking to prevent the spread of deepfakes.