Viral Chinese deepfake app Zao lets people superimpose their faces onto celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and it is terrifyingly convincing

Visual China Group via Getty Images

Zao appears to need just one selfie to make a deepfake of a user.

• An app called Zao was the most-downloaded app in China's iOS store over the weekend, and it lets users convincingly superimpose their faces onto celebrities, creating so-called "deepfakes."
  
• The app isn't available in the West, but videos uploaded to social media show people deepfaking themselves into scenes from "Game of Thrones," "The Big Bang Theory," and "Braveheart."
• Deepfake technology uses AI software to take pictures of someone and map their face onto video of someone else.
• While Zao is pretty amusing, users spotted an unusual line in the app's terms and conditions that suggested it could keep and reuse their images forever. That prompted a privacy-oriented backlash, and an apology from Zao's creators.
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China's iPhone users have found a new craze - a new app called Zao which lets people convincingly and hilariously transpose their faces onto actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Kit Harrington from "Game of Thrones", and many others.

Zao topped the Chinese iOS download chart over the weekend after first launching on the App Store on Friday. As of Monday, Zao remains top of China's App Store, according to App Annie. It isn't currently available to anyone without a Chinese phone number, and isn't listed on the UK or US App Store or Play Store.

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Created by Chinese developer MoMo, the app allows users to deepfake their faces onto a huge range of actors, singers, and even video game characters. Users can upload even just a single image of their face and the app will automatically map it onto selected video clips for them. The results are surprisingly convincing and unexpected.

Read more: From porn to 'Game of Thrones': How deepfakes and realistic-looking fake videos hit it big

So-called "deepfake" technology has caught the public's imagination, using AI software to analyse someone's face and then map it onto video of someone else. Recently it has become more sophisticated and, as the Zao app shows, more accessible.

Check out some Zao-generated deepfakes below: