Together | AI used to change gender of gay character in censored China release

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A male character is turned female by AI, as Chinese censors stamp out a gay relationship in the film Together. More here. Earning strong reviews and decent box office over the summer was the film Together. This is the horror movie where real-life spouses Alison Brie and Dave Franco find themselves, well, together. And perhaps ... Together | AI used to change gender of gay character in censored China release

A male character is turned female by AI, as Chinese censors stamp out a gay relationship in the film Together. More here.

Earning strong reviews and decent box office over the summer was the film Together. This is the horror movie where real-life spouses Alison Brie and Dave Franco find themselves, well, together. And perhaps surprisingly, the film has been an American movie that’s landed a release in the censorship-heavy China.

But it’s come at a cost. A report at Bloomberg outlines how the film has been censored for its Chinese release, and that AI tools have been used in that process.

Specifically, there’s a same-sex couple in Together who, in the Chinese release, have now become a straight couple instead. This has been achieved by using AI tools to take away the head of one of the men and placing a female face on the same body.

There’s a post on Elon Musk’s hate site that demonstrates the change, which you can find here.

Given that Together is an independent movie that’s been sold to differing distributors around the world, it’s a fair bet that Alison Brie, Dave Franco and director Michael Shanks had no knowledge of this. At the moment, none of them have commented on it, but also, I’m willing to bet it’d be a question they’ve never been asked before anyway.

It also seems quaint, compared to the above, that the censors apparently snipped out some rumpy pumpy as well.

We’re relatively early in the lifespan of water-sucking, planet-heating AI systems, as the technology is gradually refined and the companies behind it fight assorted legal battles over copyright. There’s a chilling real-life Black Mirror episode in which AI-generated video is so lifelike that people can’t tell the difference between it and the real thing (although at the moment, it’s blatant). Then, depending where you are in the world, different censors and distributors can theoretically run whatever versions of scenes they like. Who needs filmmakers?

We can but hope this is a one-off. Somehow, I doubt it…