CORONATION Street was rocked by a surprise fire as one character’s business went up in flames on the show.
The soap shock came amid a turbulent time for Abi and Kevin Webster after her deepfake porn turmoil.
For the last few weeks, the married couple have faced hell after it was revealed that Stefan Brent had created a slew of AI porn videos of his nemesis Abi after she got a documentary about Stefan’s murderous son Corey axed.
Corey brutally killed Abi’s son Seb in a horror attack and was sent to prison crushing his dreams of being a pro footballer.
Since discovering Abi was behind the cancellation of a programme set to follow him returning to his footballing career, Stefan shockingly created a slew of fake sex tapes appearing to star Abi.
It has resulted in a war as Abi and Kevin set out on a mission to prove to the police that he was the man responsible for the videos.
In tonight’s episode, Stefan turned up at the Webster house after organising a set-up to ensure Kevin and Abi would not be there.
He made a bogus phone call to the pair to tell them that he wanted to speak to them in a bid to bury the hatchet as the videos continued to spread on the internet.
It resulted in the pair heading to meet Stefan, unaware that he was heading to their house knowing that they were out.
Stefan convinced Jack that he was a customer of Kevin’s and as a result managed to get inside the house.
In the process, he was able to locate the burner phone that Kevin had been hiding which contained the crucial evidence that he was responsible for the videos.
He then phoned the police where he reported Kevin for theft with him now being free to use the CCTV footage without fear they would go searching for the incriminating phone.
With Kevin charged and bailed for a hearing date, the Webster’s were left in despair at how their lives had been wrecked by Stefan once again.
However, a shock mystery occurred when it was revealed that Stefan’s publishing office had been engulfed in flames.
As Kevin was scrolling on his phone, he said to Abi: “Have you seen this, it is on the local news feed?”
The story was about a burning building which Kevin soon revealed was at Stefan’s place of work.
He said: “Have you spotted where it is? It is Stefan Brent’s office.
Deepfake videos are made using a blend of artificial intelligence and computer imagery to create a manipulated version of a real person.
The technology can create convincing but fictional photos or videos from scratch.
Voice clones are usually dubbed into the video to make it more authentic too.
The term “deepfake” comes from the underlying artificial intelligence technology called “deep learning”.
There are several ways to make deepfakes but the most common method uses deep neural networks involving autoencoders to create a face swap.
Deepfake videos are legal.
However, depending on what is contained in the video they could potentially breach legal codes.
For example, if they are pornographic face-swap videos or photos, the victim will be able to claim defamation or copyright.
In 2022, the BBC reported a planned new law would make sharing pornographic deepfakes without consent a crime in England and Wales.
“I wonder what happened?”
Abi replied: “Maybe, the fires of hell got out of hand.
“Who cares, deepfake HQ has burnt to the ground, it is not like I am going to shed a tear over that is is?”
She continued: “For once in his life, he got what was coming and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke.”
But just what or who caused the raging fire and does Abi know more than she is letting on?
Coronation Street is streaming now on ITVX.
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