Today everyone can try on the looks of Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio.
Ukrainian startup RefaceAI has developed mobile application Doublicat that can place its users’ faces on animated images of celebrities (known as GIFs) and make them move realistically. All one needs to do is to take a selfie and choose a GIF.
The algorithms created by RefaceAI take 15 seconds to adjust a face to different lights, colors and facial expressions. With time, the algorithms will make images even more realistic as they automatically analyze more data online and learn through a process called machine learning.
Currently, Doublicat has a catalog of thousands of GIFs. One can place their face on moving images of Leonardo DiCaprio and other celebrities, as well as fictional characters like the Joker and Captain America. Subscribers, who pay $7 for a month, can even upload their own animated images.
Since its launch in January 2020, the app has already been downloaded 1 million times, and some 300,000 people use the app at least once a month.
A video clip made by Ukrainian startup RefaceAI to demonstrate how its artificial intelligence technology can change faces in high-quality videos. The company claims that its tech can be used in the entertainment, film, gaming and advertising industries.
However, in the age of fake news, which is spread online to sway public opinion for political purposes, the tool created by the startup may pose a threat. The same tech used to entertain can deceive by creating deepfakes, fakes that are hard to tell from the real thing.
The tech can put words in someone’s mouth or show a person doing things that have never happened. For example, there’s a deepfake video of former U.S. President Barack Obama insulting incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump and of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg bragging about “total control of billions of people’s stolen data.”
That’s why deepfakes have garnered attention: They have been used in celebrity pornographic videos, revenge porn, fake news, hoaxes and financial fraud.
RefaceAI is aware of the risks, but according to its chief product officer Ivan Altsybieiev, its tech doesn’t aim to deceive people. Rather, it aims to make people’s social media more “personalized.”
The startup shows it’s socially responsible by placing watermarks on images to demonstrate that they aren’t real. The company is also working on a not-for-profit web tool to detect deepfake videos, Altsybieiev said.
The startup doesn’t need personal data like face recognition technology does. Apps that use facial recognition – like FaceFirst, Blippar and FaceApp – save photos uploaded to their systems and consequently use them in the future.
RefaceAI, instead, creates a model of each facial feature. This model is not enough to recreate a person’s face and use it anywhere else except for swapping faces on images and videos, Altsybieiev said. Nevertheless, it deletes users’ photos from its servers after they are processed.
The company is using the money to develop its products and hire more people to add to its almost 40 current staffers based in Kyiv, according to Altsybieiev.
RefaceAI’s target market is the U.S. because there is more money there. Significant attention and many strategic partners also come from southeast Asia, however.
The Ukrainian segment of the market is the fifth largest by the number of downloads, but is outpaced by the U.S. and India, Altsybieiev said.
Startup RefaceAI was founded by three tech-savvies who graduated from Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, back in 2011. The team knew from the very beginning how risky the technology could be, but thought they could do it better than others.
The company’s previous product was a deep-fake app for photos called Reflect. Forbes, Mashable, The Sun, and The Verge wrote about the technology. It has even been used by Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
Yeah, I lift a little … pic.twitter.com/UAJdv8qSw1
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 6, 2019
As the world becomes more digital, people more often try to express themselves on the internet, Altsybieiev said. And the startup believes personalization is what will drive the creativity of the future where “content creators in TikTok are more popular than Hollywood stars.”
RefaceAI’s tech has already been used in the entertainment, film, gaming and advertising industries. For example, the “Movie Selfie” feature in the app of Ukraine’s cinema chain Multiplex allows users to create photos where they can become characters from “The Lord of the Rings,” “Harry Potter,” “Terminator” and other movies.
Apart from Doublicat and Reflect, this summer, the startup will also launch Reface Studio, a web service for businesses and content creators that can change faces even in high-quality videos.
A video clip made by Ukrainian startup RefaceAI to demonstrate how its artificial intelligence technology can change faces in high-quality videos. The same tech is used in the company’s mobile app called Doublicat, which places its users’ faces on animated images of celebrities, known as GIFs, and makes them move realistically.
Although such deepfake videos and photos have long stirred controversy and were banned by companies like Facebook for their ability to be easily misused, RefaceAI is still betting on fun.
“People are laughing,” Altsybieiev said. “For us, it is an indicator that one can use the technology for noble aims.”
