Wombo

This article is about the Canadian mobile app. For the band, see Wombo (band).
WOMBO
Other namesWOMBO.ai
W.ai
WOMBO.I
Developer(s)Akshat Jagga, Angad Arneja, Ben-Zion Benkhin, Paul Pavel, Parshant Loungani, Vivek Bhakta
Initial releaseFebruary 2021; 3 years ago (2021-02)
Operating systemAndroid, iOS
TypeDeepfake
Websitewombo.ai
w.ai

Wombo (stylized as WOMBO) is a Canadian tech startup centered around AI. Their flagship product is an app titled Dream, released in 2021, that has features such as using a provided selfie to create a deepfake of a person, text to image generation, and more.

WOMBO Dream

Dream is an image and video generation app powered by Stable Diffusion. It can be used to create images from text using a variety of style presets. It can also generate a deepfake using 5-10 images of source material.

The app includes a premium tier, which gives users priority processing time and no in-app ads.[1]

Wombo processes images in the cloud. CEO Ben-Zion Benkhin says that all user data is deleted after 24 hours.[2]

Development

Dream was developed in Canada and launched in February 2021[1] after a beta period in January.[3] Wombo CEO Ben-Zion Benkhin says he got the idea for the app in August 2020.[1] The app is available on both the App Store and Google Play Store.[4]

Reception

Within its first three weeks of release, the app was downloaded over 20 million times,[2] and over 100 million clips were created using the app.[5] The sudden boom in deepfake technology has been described as "a cultural tipping point we aren't ready for",[5] as it is now possible to create a deepfake from any picture off social media in a very short amount of time.

References

  1. ^ a b c Vincent, James (11 March 2021). "Lip-syncing app Wombo shows the messy, meme-laden potential of deepfakes". The Verge. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  2. ^ a b Williams, Jennifer (26 March 2021). "App allows users to make deepfake videos of friends or celebrities". FOX 5 NY. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  3. ^ Asarch, Steven (2021-03-12). "Wombo.ai lets users make silly deepfake videos of their friends or celebrities singing songs". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
  4. ^ Diaz, Ana (10 March 2021). "The Wombo app turns your favorite character into a karaoke star". Polygon. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  5. ^ a b Fowler, Geoffrey A. (25 March 2021). "Anyone with an iPhone can now make deepfakes. We aren't ready for what happens next". Washington Post. Retrieved 21 April 2021.

It shut down on May 3rd, 2023.