In an Era of Deepfake and AI Porn, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Buffybot Is a Terrifying Reality
Photo Courtesy of 20th Television
On this day 22 years ago, the world was introduced to the Buffybot. Outfitted with that signature blonde hair, a backlog of imported memories, and an unsettling blank-behind-the-eyes smile, the Buffybot was a technological marvel in the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when it was introduced in Episode 18 of Season 5. Today, two decades and countless technological advancements later, the Buffybot feels less like a harebrained sci-fi plot and more of a prophetic warning—one that is already becoming true.
If you have been on the Internet lately, you have likely seen a deepfake (a term for a video in which a person’s face or body has been digitally altered so they appear to be someone else); whether it be an AI-generated image of Trump being arrested or actress Emma Watson appearing in an ad campaign promoting a deepfake service with less-than-pure intentions, the ability to duplicate someone’s likeness for ulterior purposes has already begun to change our media landscape. In fact, the technology has become so pervasive that Disney+’s The Mandalorian hired a YouTuber who specializes in deepfakes to adjust their computer-generated Luke Skywalker. Despite its seemingly helpful application in shows like The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, deepfakes are causing much more harm than good.
The process of creating a deepfake is, unfortunately, rather simple—and it’s getting easier by the day. All one needs is photos or videos of a person, oftentimes a celebrity or a person with numerous hours of footage freely available to the public, and a program trained to map that person’s face, align it with the face in the original video, and match those two maps to create a near-seamless overlay that moves as the person in the original did, just with a brand new face. However, in comparison to the hours of footage previously needed to create a deepfake video, improvements to the technology have allowed for smaller and smaller creators to be targeted; no longer is just Mark Hamill’s likeness available for use, but anyone with a moderate online footprint could stumble upon themselves in a video doing something they have never actually done. That is the case for many Twitch streamers, like “Sweet Anita” and “QTCinderella,” who have each spoken out against the rise in non-consensual deepfake porn videos flooding the Internet, with a few starring none other than themselves. With little to no laws on the books to protect against the onslaught of deepfakes being created each day, it feels like only a matter of time before these videos start to become close to home for everyone, no matter celebrity status or Internet usage.
Remarkably, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (a series that always found itself ahead of the curve) predicted this anomaly almost to a tee—with only the limits of 2001 technology as constraints. In the fifth season of Buffy, our titular heroine finds herself feeling lost; she finds out the little sister she has a lifetime of memories with didn’t exist until a few months ago, her mother falls ill and eventually passes away suddenly due to an aneurysm, and there’s a God attempting to destroy the world. With so much on her plate, Spike’s long-brewing, ill-fated obsession with Buffy truly seems like small potatoes. However, upon feeling the sting of Buffy’s rejection in Episode 14 and seeing Warren’s remarkable work with his own girlfriend-robot in Episode 15, Spike’s obsession escalates, and he commissions a robot of his own: the Buffybot. Originally commissioned as a conduit for Spike’s growing “love” of Buffy and his desire for her, the Buffybot is truly nothing more than Spike’s sex toy. Created solely from a box of clothes, a few choice memories and specifications from Spike, and a single picture of Buffy herself, Warren created Spike’s ultimate fantasy, a version of Buffy that couldn’t tell him “no.” (Or, more specifically, a version of Buffy that wouldn’t have to be “unconscious” for him to “have a chance with.”)