The big change: AI now makes it possible for anyone with a decent computer and a few hours to spare to do what only used to be possible at a big-budget movie studio: create believable, but totally fake video footage. Further machine-learning advances will make even more complex deception possible--and make fakery harder to spot.
Deep fakes and politics: Convincing AI enabled face swaps—called deepfakes—that threaten to further blur the line between truth and fiction in politics. “Deepfakes have the potential to derail political discourse,” says Charles Seife, a professor at NYU. “Technology is altering our perception of reality at an alarming rate.”
Easy to fake: Tools for creating these false videos are becoming increasing easy to use. Our own Will Knight easily stitched Ted Cruz's face onto Paul Rudd. As he writes, perhaps the greatest risk is that the technology will further undermine truth and objectivity. It’s not that the truth won’t still be out there—it’s that we might not know it when we see it.
Here are a couple of videos that illustrate the issues.
The first one allows any klutz to superimpose cool dance moves onto his or her frame. That's fun! And the authors explain how they did it.
This presents an unsettling view of the future. Is there anything that can be done? Or more specifically, can technology rescue us from the danger it has created?
There is a possibility that technology can come to the rescue. Wired describes a Darpa program called MediFor—Media Forensics. Remember, the Defense Advanced Research Programs Agency (DARPA) gave us the initial structure of the internet. The program is a national security effort, so that suggests it is well funded.
The DARPA effort includes many complex technologies like facial recognition, but the Wired article is easily comprehensible to the layperson. I urge you to read it in its entirety--it has good news as well as bad.
That's a fitting note on which to end my #CyberAware posts. But I'll be following up on many of these topics in the very near future.
I hope you've enjoyed this month of posts and
Stay Safe!
Related Content:
Deep fake of Mark Zuckerberg
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