Hao Li, CEO of Pinscreen, shows another person's face on his body through his app Pinscreen on February 1, 2018 in Los Angeles, Calif. The company's goal is to make life-like avatars for gaming or communication, but in the wrong hands, the technology could easily be used to deceive people.(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
LOS ANGELES: All it takes is a single selfie.
From that static image, an algorithm can quickly create a moving, lifelike avatar: a video not recorded, but fabricated from whole cloth by software.
