Is ZAO in ZUO?

Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Understanding notes” (ID:dongdong_note), the author understands the deity.

The “resentment” in the heart of Joe Bilu may have to be increased, because the face-changing application of the screen-screening friend has not appeared earlier. If she has ZAO, she can completely “show her face” and no need to wait until 100,000 fans subscribe.

There is no warning. On the evening of August 30th, this AI face-changing software called “ZAO” is constantly being screened on social networks. WeChat friends circle and Weibo hot search are everywhere.

In the App Store ranking of entertainment apps, ZAO also surpassed Tencent Video and iQiyi’s two video giants, and jumped to second place (second only to watermelon video). According to ZAO’s official Weibo, the server that rented 7 million yuan this month (August) has consumed 1/3 of a night, and its popularity is evident.

The reason for the popularity is perhaps due to the extremely low threshold for its content presentation. With the “ZAO” app, users only need to upload a clear photo of the face, and they can use their own materials to change their faces to “Chou Runfa”, “Bai Zhantang”, “Xie Guangkun”, “Little Plum” and other stars. Let yourself be the protagonist of a blockbuster or partner with a dream idol.

From the actual effect, ZAO’s face fusion effect is very good, and the video after the fusion has almost no sense of disobedience.

However, the arrival of the craze has also caused many people to think. ZAO’s face-changing application is very vulnerable to copyright challenges, and there is still a lot of privacy and personal information security behind the “happy” face-changing. Hidden dangers.

The “one night red” application with a natural injury often has an ending (three days hanging), can ZAO escape this fate?

No.1Great risk of little concern

From one night to three days, ZAO can get out of the spell

From the App Store update record, ZAO’s original version 0.2 was officially launched three months ago, and has been updated three times so far. In just three months, ZAO gained such attention.It can indeed be called a phenomenon level application. This is a bit similar to the hot scene of Lao Luo’s recommendation of bullet texts at the press conference.

The only difference is that ZAO does not have the endorsement of a top traffic red man like Lao Luo, but has won public attention with his new novelty and low threshold.

Fire is a fire, but from a product perspective, AI has long been a new gadget, and similar applications have caused copyright and privacy controversy, and ultimately failed to escape the user’s “three minutes.” enthusiasm”.

From one night to three days, ZAO can get out of the spell

As early as the end of 2017, users with foreign ID “deepfakes” have released their own AI face-changing videos. At that time, because of the “Wonder Woman” actor Gail Jiaduo face was replaced by the technology to the face of a love action movie woman, caused a lot of controversy. Subsequently, the “deepfakes” technology was open sourced and was well known and used by many users. In China, many users have used this technology to perform face-changing operations on some film and television works.

Besides the video, the face change of the picture has already been “bad street”. From the original PS, Mito Xiuxiu to the later Face u, there are dozens of similar products, which are everywhere on the Internet. Yes.

This time ZAO’s red-hot, in addition to the realization of the upgrade from the face of the picture to the video face-changing, mainly benefited from the lower threshold. Previously, the process of video face-changing by users through “deepfakes” was very hard. Many users were directly rejected because of the high threshold of hardware and system.

This time, ZAO simplified the video face-changing process through the corresponding AI algorithm. The user only needs to upload a photo of himself, and there is almost no threshold for getting started.

However, many people have noticed that behind such a simple start is the “big open” of user rights.

According to ZAO’s user agreement: After uploading the content, the user agrees to grant ZAO and its affiliates and ZAO users the right to be completely free, irrevocable, permanent, transferable and licensable worldwide. “.

Perhaps for the user, an early AI video can change the face, you can authorize your own portrait for the use and spread of this AI face changing technology. But for those video materials and the portrait rights of public figures, the hidden worries and challenges are enormous.

ZAO, which has only been online for three months, obviously cannot obtain the copyright and license for a large number of videos existing in its material library at this stage. At high riskIn the meantime, once the copyright party pursues its infringement and demands compensation, it will be a very difficult problem.

ZAO obviously knows this, so it emphasizes in the user agreement: “Includes, but is not limited to, all or part of the modification and editing of user content (such as changing the face or voice in a short video to another person) The face or voice, etc.) and the dissemination of information on the user content before and after the modification, as well as all copyright property rights and adjacent rights enjoyed by the copyright owner as stipulated in the Copyright Law.

It can be seen that this is a measure that attempts to expose users to copyright risks. The user agreement that is passed on to the risk is obviously too overbearing for the user.

In this regard, I have read and interviewed a number of young users who have tasted ZAO. During the communication process, I learned that the majority of users will not read the user agreement carefully. As for copyright risks, they have no sense of prevention. One of the Internet company employees said frankly: “The user agreement for this application is generally not seen by people, so it is too tired to read long, and many places may not understand what it means even after reading it.”

Obviously, most users don’t care or know about the risks of their privacy and copyright.

No.2 Three-minute popularity of human nature

From one night to three days, ZAO can get out of the spell

From a business perspective, despite a lot of doubts, a night of red is undoubtedly fortunate for ZAO. However, the red burst does not represent the longevity of life. Looking back at the sprays in those markets, there are not a few applications that are similar to short-term red bursts and user surges, including the once bullets, small coffee shows, Faceu spurs and face sprouts.

From the perspective of product form, ZAO’s product form is too single, and there is no other function except for providing AI video for face change. Of course, it is unlikely that a product that has been on the line for just three months will have a lot of features, and the single function that is popular will also prompt users to get started quickly and understand the product. However, it’s worth noting that as a half-tool mobile app, how to maintain user stickiness for a long time is always the biggest challenge.

From one night to three days, ZAO can get out of the spell