A manipulated video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was circulating in March. Zelenskyy told the Ukrainian army to surrender. The video was a fake and was quickly debunked as a deepfake, a hyper- realistic yet fake and manipulated video produced using artificial intelligence.
This alarming example shows the potential consequences of deepfakes.
Deepfakes are being used in technology. People with Parkinson's disease can use voice cloning to communicate.
CereProc created a synthetic voice for John F. Kennedy to deliver his historical speech.
There are two sides to every coin. Deepfakes can be very realistic, and can be seen by human eyes.
The same voice-cloning technology could be used for defamation. Deepfakes have the potential to undermine democracy if they are deployed to influence public opinion.
Deepfakes are based on a technology called generative adversarial networks, in which two programs train each other to produce images.
The technology behind deep fakes is simple to produce. There are online applications that can produce deepfakes in minutes.
There are examples of code that can be used to create fake images and videos in the repository. It's easy to see how average users could wreak havoc with deepfakes without realizing the security risks.
The popularity of face swapping apps and online services shows how quickly and widely deepfakes could be adopted by the general public. Approximately 15,000 videos using deepfakes were detected in 2019. The number is expected to increase.
It takes time to debunk fake news, which is why deepfakes are the perfect tool. Damages caused by deepfakes are often long lasting and irreversible.
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Deepfakes lend themselves to misinformation in political campaigns.
When Donald Trump designated unflattering media coverage as fake news, he was able to use misinformation to his advantage.
Trump's strategy allows him to maintain support in an environment filled with distrust and misinformation by claiming that true events and stories are fake news or deepfakes.
Credibility in the media is being undermined. Politicians could easily deny their involvement in any emerging scandals because of the rising proliferation of deepfakes. How can someone confirm their identity in a video if they deny it?
As democracies try to uphold freedom of speech, they have always had a challenge in combating disinformation. The risk of deepfakes can be mitigated by having people verify the information. Existing laws could be applied to penalize producers of deepfakes for faking information.
International and national governments, private companies, and other organizations are all important in protecting democratic societies from false information.
The article was written by Sze-Fung Lee, Research Assistant, Department of Information Studies.
This article is free to use under a Creative Commons license. The original article is worth a read.
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