YouTube’s AI Deepfake Detector Now Lets Any Celebrity Take Down Infringing Videos
YouTube, the world’s largest video-sharing platform, is ready to help celebrities fight AI-generated deepfake videos, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The Google-owned website shares a deepfake detection tool it has refined over the past two years, providing access to celebrities at high risk of having their image copied in AI-generated media.
A Google representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As AI tools have made it increasingly easier to use famous likenesses in user-generated videos, Hollywood has waged war against the biggest video generators. Actors And big studios lined up against major offenders, such as Sora, recently deceased from OpenAI And ByteDance SeeDance 2.0 app. But despite growing pressure from the rich and famous, deepfakes continue to proliferate via AI video generation prompts.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, filed a lawsuit in 2025 against OpenAI, alleging that it violated Ziff Davis’ copyrights in the training and operation of its AI systems.)
YouTube’s deepfake detection tool aims to curb this trend, at least on its own video platform. The tool works similar to YouTube’s Content ID, which automatically identifies and flags copyrighted content uploaded to the website’s servers.
To participate in the program, a celebrity (or their agent) must upload their image to the deepfake detection tool, which scans the site’s content and flags potentially offensive AI-generated material for review. Affected individuals will not need a YouTube account to take action if they find unauthorized deepfake videos using their image.
Although the company may remove offensive content from the website if requested, there is no guarantee that every reported video will be removed.
“There are a number of instances, like parody and satire, where our community guidelines would allow that to remain on the platform,” Mary Ellen Coe, YouTube’s chief business officer, told The Hollywood Reporter. “If someone makes an exact replica of something that would limit the livelihood of a celebrity, actor or creator, because it is a literal replacement of content, that would be included in a takedown.”
Politicians were first, now artists can use it
This tool isn’t completely new: YouTube began its rollout last year, testing its implementation with some of the website’s biggest creators. A few months ago, the tool became accessible to politicians.
This is the broadest rollout ever as YouTube expands its user base to include actors, athletes, musicians and other celebrities whose likenesses are used in AI-generated videos.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, YouTube executives said many creators removed a small portion of the content flagged during the deepfake detection tool’s pilot program, focusing primarily on negative or derogatory media.
Coe hinted at a future in which rights holders might choose to monetize AI-generated media rather than remove it, but said this was not currently planned for the YouTube platform. The company is currently focused on “the fundamental level of accountability and protection” of celebrities and their likenesses, she said.
