The Ultra-Realistic AI Face Swapping Platform Driving Romance Scams

Capable of creating “nearly perfect” face swaps during live video chats, Hoatian has made millions, mainly via Telegram. But its main channel vanished after WIRED's inquiry into scammers using the app.

The Chinese-language artificial intelligence app Haotian is so effective that it’s made millions of dollars selling its face-swapping technology on Telegram. The service integrates easily with messaging platforms like WhatsApp and WeChat and claims that users can tweak up to 50 settings—including the ability to adjust things like cheekbone size and eye position—to help mimic the face they are impersonating. But while Haotian is a robust and versatile platform, researchers and WIRED’s own analysis have found that the service has been marketing to so-called “pig butchering” scammers and those running online fraud operations in Southeast Asia.