‘HELLO BOSS’: Inside the Chinese Realtime Deepfake Software Powering Scams Around the World

“Oh my god. Oh my god,” I yelled as I looked at my own face on someone else’s body. It was all there: my five o’clock shadow, my goofy grin, even the bags under my eyes.

I was on a Microsoft Teams call interacting with this deepfake version of myself in realtime. Ordinarily the other person on the line looks nothing like me, but by using a gaming laptop and a sought-after, cutting edge piece of software for scammers, his face morphed into mine. My deepfake pinched his cheek, covered his nose, and stroked his chin, all without the illusion breaking.

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