Deepfake: You Can't Trust Your Eyes Anymore

Want to put words in someone’s mouth? Star in a Hollywood movie? Deepfakes might just be able to help you. Deepfakes use a form of artificial intelligence called deep learning to produce fake images and videos. They are lies disguised to look like the truth and mislead people. Sounds dangerous? Take a look at this deepfake video of Mark Zuckerburg bragging about how his platform “owns” its users (clip below). However, there are both positives and negatives of Deepfakes, so let's take a closer look…

Positives

Deepfakes are great for the entertainment industry. It's use for special effects and advanced face editing in post-production is revolutionary. It can be used to create a younger version of an actor or edit scenes where an actor is unable to participate. Secondly, the very presence of deepfakes makes people more aware of fake media and warns them not to believe everything they see.

Negatives

Deepfakes allows anyone to create fake videos, spread fake news or defame someone. They can be misleading and confusing for viewers. The vast majority of deepfakes target celebrities and politicians as their public profiles provide ample sources for AI to learn from. These sources include selfies, photos, voices and videos of them.