An AI app that turns you into a movie star has risked the privacy of millions

ZAO, a viral Chinese app that uses AI to face-swap users and famous actors, is now embroiled in a major privacy controversy. The news: On Friday, a new app released by Momo, a social-media developer, instantly went viral on Chinese social media. It allows users to upload a single portrait and, within seconds, see their face superimposed onto actors in iconic movie scenes. By Sunday, it had become the most downloaded free entertainment app in China's Apple Store. While GANs have been used for face-editing and face-swapping before (increasingly so in Hollywood films), ZAO's use of a single photo, coupled with the speed and seamlessness of its swap, demonstrates how far the state of the art in media fakery has advanced.