What is a Deepfake?
Do you remember the dancing baby from Ally McBeal? Have you ever watched a YouTube video that just didn't seem authentic?
These are examples of deepfakes, and the technology capable of making these types of manipulated videos is widely available. There are also more complex digital representations produced by sophisticated artificial intelligence that yield fabricated images and sounds that appear to be real.
The AI firm Deeptrace uncovered 15,000 deepfake videos online in September 2019, double what was available just nine months earlier.
Definition of Deepfake
Deepfake: (a portmanteau of "deep learning" and "fake") is synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness. While the act of faking content is a not new, deepfakes leverage powerful techniques from machine learning and artificial intelligence to manipulate or generate visual and audio content with a high potential to deceive. The main machine learning methods used to create deepfakes are based on deep learning and involve training generative neural network architectures, such as autoencoders, or generative adversarial networks (GANS). Source: Wikipedia
What Is Being Done to Combat the Negative Effects of Deepfake Technology?
Many firms have emerged to address the deepfake challenge. Organizations like Israeli startup Cyabra are pioneering identification solutions to quickly discover deepfakes, and take them down before they trend and are distributed online. Cyabra’s approach looks at metadata, for example, of where was the picture taken, what kind of camera was used and on what date it was shot. This type of solution can be a brand or public entity's ally in preventing and combatting fake news and attacks.
Other companies like NewsGuard and FactMata fact-check content for “fake news.” And, the urgency to develop tools to discover and cease the distribution of erroneous, and often times damaging deepfakes, is growing.
Key Take Aways
The technologies used to create deepfakes are fairly new and the actual content is often easy to discover. But deepfake technology is evolving, and while the tools used to detect deepfakes are improving, the importance of keeping pace is paramount.
Trust is the currency that allows for the creation, growth, and deepening of relationships. And, authenticity, transparency, and genuineness of intent are the values that underpin trust. As amusing as deepfakes can be, as in the example of the dancing baby, it is essential that we actively combat the growing risk to the validity of the information and content we consume.