Deepfakes – the artificial-intelligence derived technique of mapping one dance onto another – have been causing concerns for some time now.

The possibility of creating convincing "fake news", with politicians made to say things they didn't and photorealistic celebrity porn with famous people doing things on camera they would never actually do could undermine our entire society.

But until now, at least, Deepfakes have been fairly hard to make, requiring specialised computer software.

Now all that has changed with a consumer-level app called ZAO which makes it possible for anyone with a smartphone to make completely realistic Deepfake clips

The new app has been developed by Momo, the same company behind popular Chinese dating app Tantan.