A horrifying new AI app swaps women into porn videos with a click

Is everything in the world a little bit conscious?

Sponsored by Dassault Systèmes The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology Easy victims 09.13.21 Good morning! It's Niall here, standing in for Charlotte this week. Today, we tell you about a new deepfake app that lets users put photos of women into porn scenes. And we ask a great 3am question: what if, like, everything is conscious? Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. A horrifying new AI app swaps women into porn videos with a click The website is eye-catching for its simplicity. Against a white backdrop, a giant blue button invites visitors to upload a picture of a face. Below the button, four AI-generated faces allow you to test the service. Above it, the tag line boldly proclaims the purpose: turn anyone into a porn star by using deepfake technology to swap the person’s face into an adult video. All it requires is the picture and the push of a button. MIT Technology Review has chosen not to name the service, which we will call Y, or use any direct quotes and screenshots of its contents, to avoid driving traffic to the site.  Y is incredibly easy to use. Once a user uploads a photo of a face, the site opens up a library of porn videos. A user can then select any video to generate a preview of the face-swapped result within seconds—and pay to download the full version. From the beginning, deepfakes, or AI-generated synthetic media, have primarily been used to create pornographic representations of women, who often find this psychologically devastating. But researchers have feared that an app like Y would emerge, breaching an ethical line no other service has crossed before. Read the full story. —Karen Hao Is everything in the world a little bit conscious? Panpsychism is the belief that consciousness is found throughout the universe—not only in people and animals, but also in trees, plants, and bacteria. Panpsychists hold that some aspect of mind is present even in elementary particles.  The idea that consciousness is widespread is attractive to many for intellectual and, perhaps, also emotional reasons. But can it be empirically tested? Surprisingly, perhaps it can. That’s because one of the most popular scientific theories of consciousness, integrated information theory (IIT), shares many—though not all—features of panpsychism. Find out more. Christof Koch is the chief scientist of the MindScope program at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle. This essay is from our print magazine—the latest mind-themed issue. To read it, you'll need to subscribe. Subscriptions start at just $50! We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.) + Emma Radacanu is a new British tennis superstar! Even the Queen congratulated her. Watch her sing along to Sweet Caroline in the aftermath of her US Open win. + Someone took the business card scene from American Psycho and made it pictures of cats instead of cards. + When Japanese peasants revolted during the Edo period—they wrote the names in a circle so there was no leader to punish. + A trippy view of the Earth from the USS. + The oral history of The Onion’s iconic September 11 issue. + Watch as college football fans saved a cat falling from the stands with a flag. + A lovely poem by Inua Ellams in response to the climate crisis. Sponsor Message Join Our Scientific Communities and Discover the Age of Experience Join Dassault Systèmes at Science in the Age of Experience – a virtual science and technology event, September 28th, 2021. Join thought leaders and influencers from around the world to explore the newest dynamics in science. Learn how the age of experience allows us to create, test and iterate in a virtual world innovative solutions to our greatest challenges. Some of the most highly sought-after leaders in science and technology will join us – including our conference keynote, George Church, PhD., from the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. Join now. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 The unvaccinated are 5 times more likely to catch delta And 11 times more likely to die, the CDC says. (Ars Technica)   + We’re asking the impossible of vaccines. (Atlantic)   + How at-home tests are at the heart of Biden’s plans. (WaPo)   + The UK is ditching plans for vaccine passports. (BBC)   + Miami airport is using sniffer dogs to check for covid infection. (WaPo)   + Are Biden’s vaccine mandates legal? (Vox) 2 Pandemic tech left out health experts Here’s why that needs to change. (TR)   + The way we use cities is changing as restrictions ease. (Economist) 3 AI weapons are the third age of warfare It follows gunpowder and nukes—and will result in a new global arms race.(Atlantic) 4 What the Epic v Apple ruling means for iPhone users It could make things cheaper. (NPR)  + A breakdown of everything we learned. (Verge)  + It’s a big crack in Apple’s walled garden. (Wired) 5 The inside story of the most daring surveillance sting in history Amazing story of the An0m phone—and the secret behind who really built it. (Guardian) 6 Hackers are leaking children’s data on the dark web And there’s nothing parents can do about it. (NBC) 7 People are turning to tongue exercise to improve their health There’s almost no evidence but, hey, when has that ever stopped anyone? (UnDark) 8 Texas’s abortion law is ruining its chance at becoming a tech haven Tech workers are now crossing it off their lists. (WaPo)   + Salesforce offered to help employees leave the state. (NBC) 9 This lab is trying to make spacetime out of quantum particles It’s a thought experiment becoming real. (Quanta) 10 Inside the cult of crypto Where belief and dogma is more important than reality. (FT)   + El Salvador had a bumpy first week of using bitcoin as legal tender. (FT) In just 2 weeks, immerse yourself in bold thinking and innovation at EmTech MIT.  Join us at EmTech MIT as we distill what's probable, plausible, and possible with tomorrow's technology and global trends in biotech, cryptocurrencies, extended reality, AI, power, and more. Register today. Quote of the day “It was 10 hours of pretty much mind-numbingly boring work, pretty much standing in the same position for the whole shift. But at the end of the shift, I was drenched in sweat and aching like I hadn’t ached since I was playing competitive soccer.” Austin Morreale, a worker at Amazon’s fulfilment center, talks about the gruelling effort required to keep up with the firm’s pace. Top image credit: PEDRO NEKOI Please send new business cards to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @niallfirth. Thanks for reading! —Niall Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up today Understand the promise of technology. Make MIT Technology Review your go-to resource for thought-provoking insights, analysis, and news about the world of technology. Get unlimited access when you subscribe today. Subscribe now Want to change how you receive these emails? You can *update your preferences or *unsubscribe from this list.  Subscription Information This message was sent to  Webmaster220 Bible Study Blog *the blog owner has deleted the hyperlink intentionally   Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142