Glossary
Deepfake
Synthetic media where a person's face or voice is swapped or animated by AI. Consent-based talking avatars are a legitimate use of the same tech.
The word 'deepfake' originally described face-swap videos of public figures created without consent. Today it loosely covers any synthetic video of a real person — including positive uses such as on-screen presenters, course videos, accessibility narration, and personalized marketing.
VlogMe is consent-first: you upload your own face or one you have the right to use, and Hedra avatars, voice clones and DUB ask you to confirm those rights before they start. Our Terms prohibit impersonating people without consent and creating misleading deepfakes.
How deepfakes are made
Three techniques do most of the work. Face swapping replaces the face in an existing video with someone else's. Face re-enactment drives a photo or a video of a person with another performance or with an audio track; talking avatars use it. Voice cloning synthesizes speech in a real person's voice from a sample. The same models power dubbing, accessibility narration, training videos and fictional characters, and also fraud and harassment, so what matters is not the technique but consent and honesty about what the viewer sees.
Where the line is
A synthetic video becomes a harmful deepfake when it shows a real person saying or doing something they did not agree to, or when it is passed off as genuine footage: fake endorsements, scams, political disinformation, harassment, non-consensual sexual content. It is legitimate when the person shown agreed, when the character is fictional, and when viewers are not misled about what they are watching.
How VlogMe handles it
- You may use only a face, voice, name or logo you own or have permission to use. Public figures may not be impersonated, and the face or voice of anyone under 18 may not be used (Terms, section 6).
- Hedra avatars, voice clones and DUB ask you to confirm these rights before a job starts. Without the confirmation the job does not run, and the confirmation is kept with the project.
- Video face swap in Aisma replaces the lead of your own clip with the person in the portraits you add, who must have agreed to it; the new leads in its examples are fictional people.
- Misleading deepfakes, impersonation and fake endorsements are prohibited (Terms, section 5). Rights holders can report misuse to abuse@vlogme.ai.
Questions
Are deepfakes illegal?
It depends on the country and the use. Many jurisdictions restrict non-consensual intimate images, fraud, election disinformation and the commercial use of someone's likeness without permission, and some require AI-generated content to be labelled. Consent and disclosure keep a synthetic video on the right side of most of these rules.
How can I spot a deepfake?
Watch for mouth movements that drift from the sound, unusual blinking, soft or flickering edges around the face and hair, light on the face that does not match the scene, and a voice without breaths. Then check the source: who published it first, and whether trustworthy outlets confirm it.
Can I make an AI avatar of myself?
Yes. Your own face and voice are the simplest case of consent: upload your portrait, clone your voice from a sample, and render.
