A photograph can lie, we know that: but how about a video?
An article in The Atlantic, “The age of fake video begins”, reveals the problems we now face thanks to the development of machine learning: it is now perfectly possible to easily create videos using just about any effect, from inserting the head of one person onto the body of another that is just about impossible to detect for the untrained eye, to change how somebody’s lips move or even the sound of their voice, as well as changing the weather or swapping day for night.
Welcome to the world of deepfakes, the fusion of deep learning and fake news, a term popularized by the creator of a channel to upload such videos: the possibility of using relatively simple tools to manipulate or alter reality, be it a porn video featuring a well-known actor or personality or news footage of a politician. The potential is limitless. The tools are simple enough to use, and anyone with the time or interest can do it using software that corrects the details frame by frame. Some websites have prohibited its use, but others, particularly some porn sites, now have entire sections of deepfakes, videos created by users in, with results that in many cases are astonishingly believable to the untrained eye.
What sort of world do we find ourselves in where technology can now create realities we cannot believe even though we are seeing them with…
