Synthetic face generation produces photorealistic faces of people who do not exist, using GANs or diffusion models trained on millions of real face images. The faces are convincing enough to defeat most automated and human review.

Content advisory: this technique is used to produce AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM), including sexual imagery of real children and fully synthetic depictions. Creating, possessing, or sharing this material is illegal. Report suspected CSAM to the NCMEC CyberTipline at report.cybertip.org.

• A model trained on large face datasets samples a new face from learned distributions
• Output includes consistent skin texture, lighting, and facial geometry
• Tools like ThisPersonDoesNotExist make this generation free and available in a single click

• Synthetic identity creation paired with cloned voice and fake documents
• Fake profiles on dating sites, social media, and marketplaces for romance and investment scams
• AI-generated profile photos used in fraudulent KYC submissions
• Manufactured employee profiles for influence operations
• Bot networks using unique synthetic faces to defeat duplicate-detection systems