Deepfakes and the Line between Live and Fiction

(Wall Street International)* — President Barack Obama sits in front of the American flag: “We are entering an era in which our enemies can make it look like anyone is saying anything at any point in time,” he warns.

Although he is using familiar expressions and hand gestures, there is something strange about the video. Obama’s face looks weird, and his voice sounds flat and forced.

It is difficult to distinguish exactly what is wrong with the video, and it only gets spooky from there. Obama references Black Panther and Get Out, and, in an unbelievable move, calls President Trump a “total and complete dipshit.”

This is not true, it is almost impossible, and it is supposed to be. At the thirty-six-second mark, the screen splits, and it becomes evident that Oscar-winning filmmaker and comedian Jordan Peele is behind the fake.

Despite being exactly him, Obama is not speaking. Instead, Peele used artificial intelligence to manipulate previous videos of Obama, along with technology to manipulate audio and create an incredibly realistic video of Obama saying and doing things he has never said or done.

In the last two years, fake content has fueled the virality of prejudiced inaccuracy to the extent that it has directly contributed to everything from outbreaks in Europe and the United States, through market manipulation in cryptocurrencies, the rise of the alt-right, the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories, Coronavirus fakes, etc.

Deepfakes have advanced to the point where they are nearly indistinguishable from authentic videos. Using a mix of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the technology behind them will only continue to advance.

As more Internet users learn how to harness deepfake technology, these videos will become more widespread and begin to creep into the public mind. Broadly speaking, a “deepfake” is a hyper-realistic video that has been digitally altered to depict an event or events that never occurred.

As deepfakes become more popular, the ability to distinguish between which videos are authentic and which are false will begin to diminish, causing the potential for social, legal, and political harms in a variety of areas in our daily lives, especially since no regulation exists.