Thursday, October 13, 2022

Deepfake

"Deepfake" combines the AI term "deep learning" with the word "fake" to mean a video or image in which the true person's visual is replaced (powered by artificial intelligence) with the likeness of someone else. Why?  To simply entertain . . or to deceive.

The resulting video or image is really convincing. Take a look at some Youtube videos. Here's one of Bruce Willis' face on a younger actor's body, speaking Russian in a commercial. And here's one using Tom Cruise's familiar face.

A Russian company called Deepcake made the deepfake video of Tom Cruise. They are probably ready to make one for you, or for a political party or for a country, or . . what wouldn't they and  other deepfake creators be willing to do?

It used to be that we could believe videos of people saying or doing something, because the technology didn't exist to lie so convincingly. What now? It will make truth even harder to know than it used to be. For example: do you believe some video showing a politician saying something awful? Or should you suspect it's a deepfake video made to convince you that she's awful? It could happen -- will happen.

Or this technology could create . . well, anything. Including some fake life that you wish for on the Metaverse. As always, what we do with any tool reflects what we value. You and all of us make choices. 

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