In April 2018, a video was posted on the internet showing former President Barack Obama insulting Donald Trump in a speech: “President Trump is a total and complete dipshit.” The video was one of the first mainstream demonstrations of what has come to be known as ‘deepfake’. It had been created by American actor and comedian Jordan Peele to warn people about the dangers of believing that everything we see on the internet is real or true.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Deepfake uses new technology based on artificial intelligence (AI) to create or alter video content so that it presents something that didn’t, in fact, occur. It is becoming a phenomenon of great concern over its potential abuse and damaging impact. The internet is already full of manipulated videos that use digital impersonations showing people saying and doing things they never said or did. But even if some fake videos aren’t very realistic, they could still influence many people’s opinions and mislead voters.
HOW TO MAKE A DEEPFAKE
Fake videos can be fabricated using a generative adversarial network (GAN), which is a type of machine-learning system. The system analyses thousands of images of a person from multiple angles in order to create a computer-generated image of the subject’s face. It is then algorithmically able to transpose one face onto the movements of another face, as if it were a very fine mask.
MORE DAMAGE: PORN
Although deepfakes could represent a threat to democracy in the long run, so far women and vulnerable minorities are its main victims. Most manipulated videos found online are pornographic material; usually they feature a female actor or celebrity’s face morphed onto another’s woman’s body.
BE VIGILANT
As with all manifestations of technology, deepfakes are here to stay. Questioning everything we see and hear on the internet might be the best way to fight them. As Peele said through Obama’s mouth, “Moving forward, we need to be more vigilant with what we trust from the internet. It’s a time when we need to rely on trusted news sources […] How we move forward in the age of information is gonna be the difference between whether we survive or whether we become some kind of fucked-up dystopia.”
