Everyone’s been talking about deepfake porn since videos with the superimposed faces of Taylor Swift, Emma Watson and other A-listers started appearing on PornHub and Reddit. Despite a number of high profile bans, deepfake technology isn’t going anywhere so we decided to investigate and find out what people really think of it.

Deepfakes use artificial intelligence to put someone else’s face into pretty much any 2D video. So far it’s mostly been used for making fake celebrity porn videos but it has many other applications too. It’s relatively easy to create your own deepfakes using free applications like FakeApp.

We surveyed nearly 1 400 people and asked them what they think to deepfakes, here’s what we found out.

Most people want to watch deepfake porn and 32% already have

Half of all girls and three quarters of men want to watch deepfake porn featuring their favourite celebrities. What’s more, 32% have already seen them.

It probably shouldn’t be a surprise that there is so much demand for celebrity deepfake porn. Celebrity sex-tapes are some of the best selling porn videos of all time and rank amongst the most popular videos on free sites like PornHub.

What did viewers think to deepfake porn?

After viewing deepfake porn most people felt it was fun, 30% of viewers felt that way. While 24% of viewers felt it was no different to watching any other porn.

And while a further 11% of people claim to love watching deepfake porn, others were more decerning and simply felt it looked unrealistic. While 15% experienced a moral dialema and decided that it didn’t feel right while viewing.

34% of girls want to use deepfakes to see themselves in a porno

In fact girls were twice as likely as guys to want to see themselves in a porn video, only 16% of guys wanted to do the same.

When it came to using deepfake porn to see their own partner in a video, people were less enthusiastic. Only 15% of people expressed a desire to do see this. Maybe having access to the real thing with your partner makes this less exciting to all but the most voyeuristic of us?

And even less people, just 8%, would want to use deepfake porn to remind us of an ex. That suggests that most people either move on after a relationship or perhaps that there’s a moral line that most people are not willing to cross. Saying that, we found that widows were way more likely to want to see their ex: 33% of widows would use deepfakes to remind them of their dead partner.

Deepfake movies and pranks

By far the most popular reason why people would use deepfakes is for pranks and making memes. Nearly 40% of people want to do this. And really, it’s hard to look at deepfake memes and not want to get involved.

Curiously nearly 1 in 5 people want to use deepfakes so they can see themselves in a movie. We’re not sure if that shows that some people have some seriously big egos or hints at a future, super-immersive movie viewing experience Hollywood needs to get excited about right now!

(Most) people are nice

Only 4% of people surveyed said they would consider using deepfakes for revenge and only 2% said they would use them for crime or fraud.

Are people worried about deepfakes?

Generally girls were more worried about deepfakes than guys. 43% of men were not worried about deepfakes at all whereas only 34% of girls said the same.

For both sexes, criminals using their face in deepfakes was their top fear and 37% of girls worried about their faces being used in porn whereas guys where much less worried about this. In fact guys where more worried about their face being used in memes than in porn.

Who would you most like to see in deepfake porn?

We asked guys who they would most want to see in deepfake porn. Here’s the top five, all of them already have many deepfakes on porn sites:

• Scarlett Johansson
• Selena Gomez
• Gal Godot
• Emma Watson
• Kate Upton

Deepfake porn legal status

With companies like Reddit and PornHub already banning deepfake porn from their sites, and some governments considering making them illegal, it’s worth exploring the legal view of deepfakes.

The most common public view is that deepfake porn is ok so long as you get permission to do it first, 38% of people agree with that view. While 30% of people believe that deepfakes are always ok because creative freedom should never be limited.

Interestingly, only 5% of people felt that deepfakes should be illegal. Which as deepfakes are clearly here to stay, it looks like it will be a nightmare for governments to find a balance between letting creativity flourish and protecting the public.

Have you seen deepfake porn yet, how do you feel about them? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

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