Deepfake Technology: A Complete Guide
Deepfake Technology
Deep fake (sometimes called deepfake) is an artificial intelligence technique for creating convincing pictures, audio, and video forgeries. The phrase is a combination of deep learning and fake, and it describes both the technique and the ensuing fraudulent content.
1. Introduction
Deepfake technology is a form of artificial intelligence (AI) that can
simulate the appearance and behavior of people, animals, or natural
environments with high levels of human-like accuracy. Deepfake
technology circumvents the need for real humans to perform the actual
work.
Deepfake technology allows the creation
of believable videos and audio that can be indistinguishable from
genuine footage without having to obtain or train a human actor. It is
used by both traditional film and video game production houses as well
as content creators who want to deceive their audiences.
The
term "deepfake" may also refer to any AI simulation where the result is
not just a video, but an entire scene or film sequence. This includes
synthetic footage created using deep-learning algorithms and splicing it
together with elements from other sources.
In
addition to movie and video game production houses, deep-fake
technology has been used in political campaigns to manipulate voters’
perceptions, sometimes successfully.[1][2] In March 2017, a deepfake was
uploaded online by Twitter user @PizzaGate that showed President Donald
Trump eating pizza while the White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee
Sanders said "no" at the same time.[3] In June 2018, CNN's Jake Tapper
said he would retire after his show was featured on a fake news website
known as "TheDirtyNetherlands"[4] that published doctored images
supposedly showing him having sex with his staff.[5][6]
The
term "deepfakes" itself may refer specifically to videos created using
this technology. In contrast, some videos have been
fabricated using other forms of AI such as generative adversarial
networks (GAN).[7][8] The latter type is more easily distinguished from
videos based on deep learning algorithms because they use different
algorithms such as random forests instead of neural networks.
There
are few examples recorded in history that made use of Deepfakes, but
they were mostly seen around 2016–2018 when the first articles
describing their usage started appearing in media outlets such as The
New York Times[9] and The Washington Post.[10] However, it was only in
2018 when people started noticing this kind of trickery being done on
social media platforms like Facebook[11][12], YouTube[13], Snapchat[14], and Instagram[15]. As far back as 2016, there was also an extensive
article about fake news which included mentions about Deepfakes,[16]
indicating their usage had become more common than previously thought at
this.
2. What is Deep Fake?
I am writing this article to bring attention to the fact that deepfake
technology is available today. Deepfake technology is a form of image,
audio, and video content creation used by criminals to produce fakes for
various purposes, including forgery and identity theft.
This
technology is used in a wide range of fields, including law
enforcement, marketing, journalism, and manufacturing. Today, deepfake
technology has become more sophisticated than ever before and has become
easier to use thanks to advances in artificial intelligence and machine
learning.
Deepfake technology can be used
for a variety of purposes – from reproducing images (such as celebrity
photos), audio (such as music videos), or video (such as news videos).
The end product can be of such quality that it could fool an expert who
uses human eyesight to look at it.
It is also
possible to create fake videos using this technique; however, it must
be noted that the quality of videos created using deepfake technology
tends to be lower than real ones because the algorithms used by
deepfakes are not optimized for video creation.
Deepfakes
can be created by deploying neural networks on top of standard
artificial intelligence techniques such as convolutional neural networks
(CNNs), recurrent neural networks (RNNs), or non-convolutional neural
networks (CNNs). This allows them to mimic the visual appearance of
human perception at a level that is indistinguishable from natural human
perception.
In addition, they can
mimic behaviors just like humans would do in certain social situations
or under certain conditions or interactions – especially when people
interact with each other online through social media platforms such as
Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook where image recognition algorithms have
been developed specifically for this purpose.
The
use of deepfakes has been expanding rapidly since their advent in late
2017 – 2018 due to the development of AI-based image recognition
algorithms which have significantly improved in accuracy over previous
generations. In light of these developments and advancements in recent
years there have been numerous attempts by nation-states and criminal
organizations alike to use the new technologies for nefarious purposes
such as creating fake identities with stolen data or even false
identities on social media platforms like Facebook where images are
uploaded via selfie galleries while users may still control their
privacy settings so they cannot be seen without their consent; therefore
making it difficult if not impossible for any agency involved with law
enforcement agencies which employ artificial intelligence and automation
technologies related equipment like software-based computer vision
cameras which are equipped with optical character recognition software
that processes images captured via any camera.
3. Deep Fake Examples
In the recent past, we’ve seen many fake news stories being published
on social media. This is known as “deepfake,” a technology that lets you
watch the person you are watching in the video or audio.
On his Facebook page, actor and director Matt Damon wrote about the impact that deepfakes have on our lives.
He said:
“The
technology of deepfake has made it possible for anyone to create a
convincing video of someone they don’t know in every situation
imaginable. It has become such a common technique for online fraudsters
to make fun of people that I have seen it used against friends and
family — the family that won’t even be there to see it because they are too
busy trying to get away from the threat of being caught on camera.
The
thing is, this is not fake news — this is a fraud! The idea behind
deepfakes is simple: You can create an accurate copy of someone who
looks exactly like them — but with their face and voice added by a
computer. This can be done with makeup or with just voiceover recording.
Because computers aren’t very good at reproducing facial expressions,
they often fall back on sounds and voices instead.
But
why? Why do people fall for this? The answer is simple: It looks good!
People still trust what their eyes tell them about the world around
them. And deepfakes give users a sense of security — like when you hear
your friend say ‘I love you but then go outside and get hit by a bus…or
when you hear your best friend say ‘I love you but then she goes out
for dinner with her boyfriend…or when you hear your mom say ‘I love you
but she was only driving 30 mph…or when someone says ‘I love you in
Japanese…or when your boyfriend says ‘I love you in French…or when
someone says ‘I love you in Spanish…or when someone says ‘I love you
in Mandarin Chinese…it all feels good to be believed!
But
deepfakes are more than just pretty pictures; they also give users an
experience that feels real, making it hard to distinguish between real-life and computer-generated images.
4. Deep Fake Technology
If you’re reading this, then you’re probably already aware of the new
technology that came out this month. Deepfake technology is a technology
that is powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
The
technique is used for creating realistic-looking fake videos, photos,
and audio. It consists of training the AI to recognize images and audio
as real or not, then using that knowledge to generate fake videos,
photos, and audio files.
Deepfake Technology
can be used in the creation of “deepfakes”—a term coined by journalist
Brian Blau and his colleague Justin Hawkins in February 2018. A deepfake
is a high-quality video where the original video appears to be an image
captured from a different video or camera angle. Deepfakes can be used
to deceive someone into believing an individual or organization has
produced a video, photo or other digital representation of something.
The
forum post on Reddit in March 2018 described how deepfakes could either
be produced via social media (Facebook Live clips) or for private use
(a hidden camera recording footage.)
In May
2018, Blau published a book about deepfakes with co-author Alex Hern. In
the book they explained how deepfakes could be created by computers and
humans alike. They explain that humans are “generally good at
recognizing what we see as real but bad at recognizing what we don’t see
as real but great at generating images based on our perception of what
we do see as real…it suggests that we might want to think about deepfake
technology as not simply AI-powered but also human-powered…the idea
here isn’t that AI is just better than humans but that it can do more
with less—and by doing less it can produce more convincing results.”
They
argue that deepfakes are not only being used online but can also be
created offline using optical character recognition (OCR), computer
vision algorithms, speech recognition technologies and other artificial
intelligent capabilities.
In February 2019 Joint Warfighting Computational Intelligence Symposium writer Brian Blau wrote:
"Deepfake
technology has been around long before artificial intelligence became
popularized" "Although it was first publicly demonstrated in 2013 when
researchers used DeepMind's AlphaGo Zero computer program for an initial
experiment known as 4Chan DeepFake . . . This development was followed
up by researchers from Google who developed Google TensorFlow , an open
source machine learning framework that allows developers
5. Types of Deep Fake
Deepfake technology has rapidly gained in popularity over the past few years, with many being labeled as a “threat to freedom.”
The
ability to create convincing fake content has received a lot of
attention and debate in recent years, with some claiming that it is
already available, and others arguing that it is still controversial.
In
terms of benefits, deepfake technology offers many advantages over
traditional methods of creating fake content. Such advantages include
portability; most deepfakes are freely available online and can be
downloaded quickly, making them easy for anyone to view.
Disadvantages
include being able to continue existing traditional methods of
producing fake content (such as video clips), making websites more
vulnerable to hacking attacks and other forms of cybercrime, as well as
requiring technical expertise from both the production side (creating
the videos) and the viewing side (detecting what is real and what
isn’t).
A variety of security measures are
used by companies such as Google to combat these types of threats,
including software-based antivirus systems designed specifically to
detect deepfake technology.
Some governments
have also passed legislation that bans deepfakes or at least requires
companies who produce them to register them with at least one mandatory
encryption system or else face criminal penalties. In recent years,
however, it has also been argued that deepfakes should be classified as a
type of art rather than a threat because they do not appear on computer
screens and are not made in front of human observers.
6. Social Media and Deep Fakes
There are advantages and disadvantages to using deepfake technology on social media.
Advantages:
You
can create an image and fake audio (the perfect recording of a voice or
song) that sounds realistic but is not intended to be real. However,
the images and audio can be manipulated by the user, so they may look
like something other than what they were intended to look like.
In
addition, you can use it as a form of extortion. If someone posts some
content on social media without permission, you could claim that the
content is fake and illegal and threaten legal action against them. This
can help you gain attention from followers who might have otherwise
been deterred from following your account because of legal concerns.
Alternatively, if someone posts some content on social media, it could
be fake in nature but not intended for public consumption. In this case,
you could claim that the content is not fake but for personal use only
(e.g., an image that one friend had taken), which would appear less
threatening to your followers and cause them to share it more widely as
well as generate revenue from ads associated with the already shared
content (e.g., a link back to your profile).
Disadvantages:
If
done correctly and properly posted so as not to violate copyright laws
or other intellectual property rights, deepfakes are illegal under
United States law, although most cases are resolved amicably with no
criminal penalties attached or minor civil penalties waived (i.e., only
fines will be levied). Nevertheless, if done incorrectly or improperly
posted without proper consent/permission from its owner/owner’s
representative (e.g., if one user posts a video on Instagram without
asking permission before using it on their own account or posting it
elsewhere), then by definition the video is false advertising because
its creator cannot guarantee that there is no copyright infringement
involved in posting it; however, most courts do not consider this type
of false advertising in determining whether parties have violated
another’s intellectual property rights [1]. There may also be good
reasons why one wants others to falsely believe something about
themselves; for example, if one wanted their
employer/employees/customers/customer base to think good things about
them [2]. One could also argue that deepfakes are not always produced
with malicious intent; for example, questionable motives for posting
misleading information about oneself are often found in advertisements
depicting celebrities who have recently appeared in magazines where
photographs are used without permission [3].
7. Warnings for Future Generations
Disruptive technologies are often called disruptive because they
disrupt an industry, but also because a disruptive technology can have a
positive impact on an individual’s life. In this article, we use the
term deepfake to refer to an artificial intelligence technique for
creating convincing pictures, audio, and video forgeries. Deepfake
technology is currently the subject of hot debate due to its ability to
mimic the appearance and features of real-world images. While more
advanced techniques such as 3D printing may be able to produce similar
results shortly, deepfake technology has the potential to
provide more realistic recreations of real-world objects in a much
shorter amount of time.
The term deepfake has
been around since 2010 when researchers published research showing that
deep learning algorithms could imitate human behavior. The initial
research was conducted using images taken with a smartphone camera. The
simulated videos were created based on real-life footage by training
the algorithm from videos taken from YouTube and Vimeo. Since then,
researchers have developed algorithms that make it possible for them to
create realistic videos or fake images of objects even when those
objects are not physically present in the footage. Over time,
researchers have expanded these capabilities over at least two
dimensions: depth (to recreate depth perception), and 3D imaging (to
reproduce 3D geometry). As more powerful algorithms become available,
humans will be able to construct believable simulations with greater
accuracy than before. However, it may be some time before we can create
realistic things like clothing and cars out of our simulated fake
creations that would resemble their real-world counterparts (such as our
current attempts at creating believable fake cars).
8. Conclusion
The technology of deepfake is still being experimented with, but it has
been around since June 2015. It is in its early stages of development
and has not been perfected yet.
In this article, I will be discussing the benefits and disadvantages of deepfake technology.
The
technique was first introduced by researchers at the University of
California, Berkeley in 2014. Since then, a variety of researchers
across the globe have explored applications for deepfake technology. For
example, a group from the University of Central Florida created a fake
video to promote a study on people’s attitudes towards religion (see
below). A group from the University of Technology Sydney created an
emoji that could be used to represent various emotions (see below). A
research team from South Korea created an emoji that could represent
different emotions (see below). A group from Harvard created an emoji
that can represent different emotions (see below). There are many more
examples to list.
The technology has several
advantages over conventional ways of creating fakes; first and foremost,
it is cheaper than traditional methods. In addition, there are no
guarantees that the footage will work in real-life conditions or will be
accepted by viewers as authentic – both limitations that are present
with conventional fakes in addition to its advantages over traditional
fakes:
When using deepfake technology as a
tool for fraud purposes, you can create convincing fakes with ease
because it requires relatively little skill – you don’t need to know how
to edit videos or anything else about video editing software; you only
need some knowledge about basic computer skills and programming
languages like C++ or Python. Moreover, you do not need special
equipment or equipment that looks like professional cameras because
deepfakes can be made through simple devices such as smartphones and
tablets.
To sum up my views on this topic:
Deepfake technology is still developing in terms of quality and
usability but it has many advantages over other types of media fraud. It
reduces costs significantly and doesn’t require much expertise to use
it successfully – so, in my opinion, it should be considered more useful
than conventional media fraud techniques. I hope this article has given
you some more insight into this topic and helped you understand where we
are headed concerning media fraud techniques.
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