AI face-swapping turns gay couple straight in Chinese release of horror flick “Together”

A Chinese release of the horror film “Together” starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie used artificial intelligence to digitally alter a gay male character’s face into a woman’s face, converting a homosexual relationship into a heterosexual one for local audiences. This represents a new frontier in content censorship, where AI technology enables seamless digital manipulation of LGBTQ+ content rather than simply cutting scenes, raising concerns about viewers’ ability to detect such alterations.

What happened: The horror film “Together,” directed by Michael Shanks, was digitally modified using AI face-swapping technology before its Chinese theatrical release.

• In one scene featuring a gay couple, a male character’s face was replaced with that of a woman using AI, transforming the homosexual relationship into a heterosexual one.
• Some sex scenes were also removed from the final version shown in Chinese theaters.
• Most viewers only discovered the alteration after side-by-side comparisons began circulating on social media.

Why this matters: The use of AI for content censorship marks a significant escalation from traditional editing methods, creating nearly undetectable alterations that could fundamentally change storytelling.

• Unlike previous censorship methods that involved cutting scenes or dialogue, AI face-swapping allows for seamless content modification that preserves narrative flow.
• This technology could enable widespread retroactive censorship of existing films and shows, potentially rewriting LGBTQ+ representation across entire catalogs of content.

What viewers are saying: Chinese audiences on Douban, China’s equivalent of IMDb, expressed alarm at the digital manipulation.

• “The evolution to using AI to directly swap faces is truly terrifying. In the future, we won’t even know we’re watching the original film,” one viewer commented.
• Another sarcastically wrote: “That’s great! We can re-release Brokeback Mountain, God’s Own Country, Lan Yu, and Happy Together, and use AI to remake them into heterosexual romances with just one click.”

The broader context: This incident continues a pattern of LGBTQ+ content being altered or removed for Chinese audiences, but with new technological capabilities.

• Previous examples include Bohemian Rhapsody having references to Freddie Mercury’s sexuality removed in 2018, and Warner Bros removing dialogue about Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s romantic relationship in Fantastic Beasts.
• While homosexuality is decriminalized in China, same-sex relationships are not legally recognized and LGBTQ+ content faces ongoing restrictions.

Regulatory landscape: China maintains tight control over media content through various mechanisms and recent directives.

• In 2021, the National Radio and Television Administration banned “effeminate men” on screen and urged broadcasters to promote “revolutionary culture.”
• Earlier this year, several authors of gay erotic fiction called “danmei” were detained for allegedly producing “obscene materials for profit.”
• Chinese platforms are held accountable for policing content, creating incentives for preemptive censorship.