Taylor Swift Wants to Trademark Her Likeness. These TikTok Deepfake Ads Show Why
Taylor Swift Wants to Trademark Her Likeness. These TikTok Deepfake Ads Show Why
泰勒·斯威夫特希望为其肖像申请商标，TikTok 上的深度伪造广告揭示了原因
Last week, Taylor Swift filed a trio of trademark applications to protect her image and voice. One is meant to cover a well-known photograph of the pop singer holding a pink guitar during a concert on her record-breaking Eras tour, while the two sound trademarks are for simple identifying phrases: “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift” and “Hey, it’s Taylor.”
上周，泰勒·斯威夫特（Taylor Swift）提交了三项商标申请，旨在保护其肖像和声音。其中一项涵盖了这位流行歌手在打破纪录的“时代巡回演唱会”（Eras tour）上抱着一把粉色吉他演出的著名照片；另外两项声音商标则是针对简单的识别短语：“嘿，我是泰勒·斯威夫特”和“嘿，我是泰勒”。
The move comes as AI deepfakes continue to proliferate across social media. Any individual stands to have their likeness exploited in the creation of nonconsensual AI-generated material; earlier this month, an Ohio man was the first person convicted under a new federal law criminalizing “intimate” visual deceptions of this sort. Celebrities, meanwhile, find themselves at risk of both explicit deepfakes and false endorsements.
此举正值人工智能深度伪造技术在社交媒体上持续泛滥之际。任何人的肖像都有可能被利用来制作未经本人同意的人工智能生成内容；本月初，俄亥俄州一名男子成为首位根据一项新的联邦法律被定罪的人，该法律将此类“亲密”视觉欺骗行为定为刑事犯罪。与此同时，名人们也发现自己正面临着露骨的深度伪造和虚假代言的双重风险。
A new report from the AI detection company Copyleaks shows that Swift and other stars have recently had their likenesses used in scammy advertisements. Researchers identified a cluster of sponsored videos on TikTok that appeared to show Swift, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, and others promoting “potentially fraudulent or malicious services,” with the clips making use of what the researchers call “realistic-sounding voices” as well as “textured filters meant to mask some of the flaws in the AI-generated visuals.”
人工智能检测公司 Copyleaks 的一份新报告显示，斯威夫特和其他明星的肖像近期被用于诈骗广告。研究人员在 TikTok 上发现了一系列赞助视频，视频中似乎出现了斯威夫特、金·卡戴珊（Kim Kardashian）、蕾哈娜（Rihanna）等人，在推广“可能具有欺诈性或恶意”的服务。这些视频片段使用了研究人员所称的“听起来很逼真的声音”，以及“旨在掩盖人工智能生成视觉效果中某些缺陷的纹理滤镜”。
The fake ads show Swift et al. in what seem to be common interview settings—red carpet events or talk show sets. Rather than answering questions, however, the AI-generated celebrities talk up supposed rewards programs in which TikTok users are paid for offering feedback on content served to them.
这些虚假广告将斯威夫特等人置于看似常见的采访场景中，如红毯活动或脱口秀现场。然而，这些人工智能生成的名人并没有回答问题，而是在吹捧所谓的奖励计划，声称 TikTok 用户可以通过对推送给他们的内容提供反馈来获得报酬。
“I was reading about digital behavior this week and came across a testing feature called TikTok Pay,” says a deepfaked Swift in an ad that uses manipulated footage from an appearance the real Swift made on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in October. “Certain users are being invited to watch videos and submit opinions.” The deepfaked Swift goes on to say that the program is in “limited rollout” for the moment but encourages viewers to see if they qualify for it, adding: “If the page opens for you, don’t overthink it.”
“我这周在阅读关于数字行为的内容时，偶然发现了一个名为‘TikTok Pay’的测试功能，”一个深度伪造的斯威夫特在广告中说道，该广告使用了斯威夫特本人去年十月参加《吉米·法伦今夜秀》时的被篡改片段。“部分用户受邀观看视频并提交意见。”这个深度伪造的斯威夫特继续说道，该项目目前处于“有限推广”阶段，并鼓励观众查看自己是否符合资格，还补充道：“如果页面为你打开了，别想太多。”
Naturally, anyone who clicks is accepted. These ads eventually lead the user to a third-party service that, despite the TikTok name and logo, has evidently been vibe coded using the AI platform Lovable, whose own branding appears on the page and in the URL. At this point, the researchers say, the user is prompted to begin entering their name and personal information.
自然地，任何点击的人都会被“录取”。这些广告最终会将用户引导至一个第三方服务平台。尽管该平台使用了 TikTok 的名称和标志，但显然是使用人工智能平台 Lovable 构建的，因为页面和网址上都出现了 Lovable 的品牌标识。研究人员表示，此时，系统会提示用户开始输入姓名和个人信息。
While it’s not clear what the advertisers intend to do with all the data mined through their celebrity deepfake promotion, scam ads with similar objectives are exceedingly common. Last week, the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America sued Meta, alleging that the tech giant misled Facebook and Instagram users about its efforts to crack down on scam ads—and profited by allowing them to proliferate. On Monday, the US Federal Trade Commission reported that social media scams have surged overall, with Facebook scams accounting for the highest total of financial losses.
虽然尚不清楚广告商打算如何处理通过名人深度伪造推广所挖掘的数据，但具有类似目标的诈骗广告非常普遍。上周，非营利组织美国消费者联合会（Consumer Federation of America）起诉了 Meta，指控这家科技巨头在打击诈骗广告的努力上误导了 Facebook 和 Instagram 用户，并因允许这些广告泛滥而获利。周一，美国联邦贸易委员会报告称，社交媒体诈骗总体呈激增趋势，其中 Facebook 上的诈骗造成的经济损失总额最高。
It’s no surprise that Swift and her peers are taking legal steps to distance themselves from this fraudulent economy. While Swift hasn’t publicly commented on the reasoning behind her trademark filings, the reputational damage that deceitful deepfakes pose to her billion-dollar brand can hardly be overlooked. The trouble is, they grow more sophisticated by the day.
斯威夫特及其同行采取法律手段与这种欺诈经济划清界限并不令人意外。虽然斯威夫特尚未公开评论其申请商标背后的原因，但欺骗性的深度伪造对她价值数十亿美元的品牌所造成的声誉损害是不容忽视的。问题在于，这些伪造技术正变得日益复杂。