Kristen Bell says she was 'shocked' to learn that her face was used in a pornographic deepfake video

• Kristen Bell's face was used in a pornographic deepfake video without her consent, she told Vox on Monday.
• The actress' husband Dax Shepard alerted her of the deepfake videos, which use artificial intelligence to place Bell's face on a porn performer's body.
• "I was just shocked, because this is my face... belongs to me," she said. "It's hard to think about that I'm being exploited."

Kristen Bell was "shocked" to find out that her face was used in a pornographic deepfake video, she told Vox on Monday.

The actress' husband Dax Shepard learned about the videos after his friend Ashton Kutcher told him that Bell was used in deepfake pornography, which used artificial intelligence to place her face on a porn performer's body.

"I was just shocked, because this is my face... belongs to me," she said. "It's hard to think about that I'm being exploited."

Deepfake videos manipulate existing footage of a person's face to fit someone else's expressions and voice. The person making the video has complete control of the individual's facial expressions and can make it appear as though they're doing something they never consented to.

Because celebrities are photographed so often and have a plethora of photographs online, the deepfake videos can appear astonishingly realistic.

Henry Ajder, who co-wrote Deeptrace's report titled "The State of Deepfakes: Landscape, Threats, and Impact," told Vox that 96% of the deepfake videos online are non-consensual pornography, and 100% of the deepfake victims in those pornographic videos are women, like Bell.

The report also states that 99% of the subjects in pornographic deepfake videos were "actresses and musicians working in the entertainment sector."

As the #MeToo movement and subsequent sexual misconduct allegations shed light on the topic of consent, Bell said that the use of deepfake technology is unacceptable — even with a disclaimer that it's not actually them in the video.

"We're having this gigantic conversation about consent and I don't consent, so that's why it's not okay. Even if it's labeled as, 'This is not actually her,' it's hard to think about that," she said. "I wish that the internet were a little bit more responsible and a little bit kinder."

Actress Scarlett Johansson has also been used in deepfake pornography. She's reportedly been manipulated to appear in dozens of sex scenes by anonymous online users. One of the fake videos that was labeled as "leaked" footage generated over 1.5 million views.

The "Under the Skin" star said that she's nearly lost hope of regaining control of the videos during a 2018 interview with The Washington Post.

"Nothing can stop someone from cutting and pasting my image or anyone else's onto a different body and making it look as eerily realistic as desired," she said, adding, "The internet is a vast wormhole of darkness that eats itself."

Between trying to copyright her photos to prevent appearances in deepfake pornography to having a man in Hong Kong create a life-sized robot with her face on it without her consent, Johansson said she's learned that the fight over images of herself is complex, and often not in her favor.

"Even if you copyright pictures with your image that belong to you, the same copyright laws don't apply overseas. I have sadly been down this road many, many times," she told The Washington Post.

"The fact is that trying to protect yourself from the internet and its depravity is basically a lost cause, for the most part."