---
title: "New System Makes It Troublingly Easy to Create Deepfakes"
description: "A new AI tool called FSGAN makes creating deepfake videos easier than before. The system doesn't require training and can swap faces in real-time."
date: "2019-08-20"
modified: "2019-08-28"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/system-easy-create-deepfakes"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
tags:
  - "artificial intelligence"
  - "deepfakes"
  - "the digest"
---

# New System Makes It Troublingly Easy to Create Deepfakes

![A new system makes it easier than ever for people to generate believable deepfakes. The AI tool doesn't require training and can swap faces in real-time.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/hilariously-easy-create-deepfakes.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Yuval Nirkin via YouTube/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Winging It

A new deepfake-generating system called FSGAN can swap people's faces in real-time, without needing the extensive training that an AI algorithm normally requires to learn what a specific face looks like.

That means that deepfakes could soon proliferate more rapidly than ever before, [according to *Motherboard*](<https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/594qx5/there-is-no-tech-solution-to-deepfakes>), because creating the [deceptive, manipulated videos](<https://futurism.com/deepfake-ai-videos-match-transcript-edits>) now requires less technical know-how than ever.

## Face-Swap

The system, designed by scientists from Israel's Bar-Ilan University, relies on a [target video](<https://futurism.com/full-body-deepfakes>) of a person, the movements and expressions of which are then mapped onto someone else's face. With this system, only a photo of the deepfake's target is required to make them say whatever the deepfake creator wants, [according to research](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/1908.05932.pdf>) published to the preprint server *ArXiv* on Friday.

In a [demo video](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsITEVX6hkE>), it’s clear that the results aren't perfect. The background wobbles and the celebrity pairings shown off — like Alfonso Cuaron crossed with Regina King at the 1:13 mark — are more comical than anything. But it's easy to see how a bad actor could easily use this tech to create believable propaganda.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsITEVX6hkE

## Show The World

The engineers behind this new deepfake tech said they're sharing their code with the world because hiding it away wouldn't stop similar tech from popping up, per *Motherboard*.

That's [a common line](<https://futurism.com/darpa-stop-deepfakes-facebook-google>) from deepfake developers: that they're publishing their deepfake tech so someone — meaning someone *else* — can look it over and develop some sort of [deepfake-detecting countermeasure](<https://futurism.com/darpa-68-million-technology-deepfakes>). If only there was an easier way, like perhaps not building consumer-friendly deepfakes in the first place.

**READ MORE:** [This Program Makes It Even Easier to Make Deepfakes](<https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/594qx5/there-is-no-tech-solution-to-deepfakes>) \[*Motherboard*\]

**More on deepfakes:** *[Congress Is Officially Freaking Out About Deepfakes](<https://futurism.com/congress-deepfakes-threat>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)