Over the past few months, the internet has found a creepy new hobby: using artificial intelligence to paste the faces of celebrities onto porn videos. The technology has some disturbing implications, especially with regards to consent, harassment, and fake revenge porn. But on Reddit, where most of this content is being shared, users have found at least one wholesome (sort of) use for it: inserting Nicolas Cage into movies he never acted in.
Cage has long been an internet favorite, thanks in part to his willingness to appear in just about anything_. Now, with the help of AI, his likeness can be seen in an even wider range of roles: replacing Sean Connery as James Bond in Dr. No; standing in as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark; _and taking the place of Amy Adams in Batman v Superman. In a stroke of meta-genius, the user responsible for these videos, "derpfakes," even pasted Cage's face onto Andy Samberg's during a _Saturday Night Live _skit featuring Nicolas Cage himself. How's that for a face-off?
Despite the popularity of these clips, derpfakes is giving up on Cage. "He's had a good run and hopefully made some people take an interest in this sub and the tech behind it, but it is time to move on," he said in a comment. Users quickly began suggesting replacements for a new "torchbearer" for AI fakery. "I would prefer seeing John Malkovich's face plastered on everyone in the movie, Being John Malkovich," was one suggestion.
What's notable, though, is derpfake's assumption that the Cage clips might prompt people to "take an interest" in this technology. Using AI to paste people's faces onto video clips has fantastic potential for fun and weird content, but we can't ignore the fact that the push to make this technology accessible is coming from a group of internet users primarily interested in using it to create fake celebrity porn.
Right now, this content is still niche, but what happens when it hits the mainstream? When it's targeting not only celebrities but private citizens? When it's used to harass women (because it certainly will be), or when it finds its way into high schools? We're seeing the first signs of this already. A recent _Wired _article noted that there are hardly any legal options for controlling this sort of media. "It falls through the cracks because it's all very betwixt and between," one law professor said.
Right now, Nicolas Cage is — quite literally — the acceptable face of this technology. But things are only going to get weirder and worse from here.