YouTube Partners with CAA to Shield Public Figures from Deepfakes

YouTube announced its partnership with the entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) on Tuesday to protect public figures from deepfakes. With this partnership, the Google-owned video-streaming giant will offer early access to its AI-generated deepfake detection technology, while the celebrities will provide feedback to help YouTube improve its tool. The company also announced that its under-development likeness management technology will enter the testing phase starting early next year. Notably, this tool can detect when a video imitates the face and voice of a real person.

In September, the video-streaming company revealed that it is developing a new technology that will help the platform's creators maintain control over their likenesses, including their faces and voices. The likeness management tool can detect synthetic videos that imitate another creator and block them.

Three months after the announcement, YouTube has now announced its partnership with CAA to test the technology and receive feedback from users. The company will give early access to its technology to “several of the world's most influential figures” to help them identify and manage AI-generated deepfakes. While the company did not mention any names, it highlighted that the pool of celebrities will include “award-winning actors” and athletes from the NBA and NFL.

With this tool, these celebrities will also be able to easily submit requests for content removal via YouTube's privacy complaint process. The company likely formed this collaboration with CAA as public figures struggle the most with deepfakes, and this will allow the video streaming platform to test the capability of the technology on a large pool of potential AI-generated videos.

“CAA's clients' direct experience with digital replicas in the evolving landscape of AI will be critical in shaping a tool that responsibly empowers and protects creators and the broader YouTube community,” the company said.

YouTube also highlighted that this collaboration is the first step of product refinement. Later next year, the company also plans to test the technology with cohorts of top YouTube creators, creative professionals, as well as its partners.

Notably, CAA has several high-profile clients including Ariana Grande, Peter Dinklage, Tom Hanks, Reese Witherspoon, Zendaya, Matthew Stafford, Raphael Varane, Son Heung-Min, Cole Palmer, Carlo Ancelotti, and others.