Deep fake, AI, social media: Tech advancements which are making us question everything

2016 was a massive turning point for the fourth industrial revolution. It is certainly a point in history which our children will write 15 mark essay questions on in their GCSE exams and law students will agonise over while cramming in third year. Why? Well it was the year that Muhammed Ali, John Glenn, Harper Lee and David Bowie passed away, the year of the Zika virus, the year of the summer Olympics in Brazil, but most importantly for regulators and tech people, it was the year of Brexit and Donald Trump being elected as president of America.

It was the year that turned technology from a sole source of goodness and progression into a threat which society had not foreseen, resulting in government’s playing ‘catch up’ with tech giants in an attempt to regulate them and the content which they allow to be circulated.

There are four mediums which dominate fake news: written text, photos, voice, and the scariest one…. video (‘duhn duhn duuhhhhnnnn‘). Video is the most complex in terms of the deep-learning algorithms, but the process in non-technical terms is quite simple: taking two people, it maps their eye movements, mouth details, face contours, the way they blink etc, before swapping one person’s face for the other.

‘Deep fakes’ was based on software developed by Google. It is freely available to all who know what they are doing or who are interested enough to learn how to use it.

In May 2018, a video of Donald Trump surfaced on the web which offered advice to Belgium on climate change: “As you know, I had the balls to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement…and so should you.” The video was fake (although him saying something of that nature wouldn’t be too shocking) and was posted by a Belgian political party, Socialistische Partij Anders (sp.a) and released on their social platforms.

Another major example was when Buzzfeed and Jordan Peele’s production company used Adobe After Effects and the AI face-swapping tool FakeApp to display the power of ‘deep fake’ videos.

Now this may all be entertaining, but the future of it regarding our data and what we can or can’t believe is concerning. Upon the chance of such fake videos go onto credible news platforms, wars could be started and riots could brew, such as in India, where viral fake news has caused chaos and fatal incidents, WhatsApp has now run TV ads to warn users about the problem. Similarly, if enough Facebook or Instagram pictures and videos are taken from you or I, a video of us could circulate on the internet which could tarnish our reputation, affecting job opportunities, etc.

In 2018 a woman in her forties became a victim of deep fake when she had her face attached to a person featuring in a pornography video. “I feel violated – this icky kind of violation,” said the woman, due to the potential of the video damaging to her marriage or career. This has given rise to a new type of crime, ‘revenge porn’.

So, what can we do?

1. Lock down your online data: it has never been so important as it is now to protect your data. Snapchat Maps? Turn that off. Instagram? Lock it. Facebook? Lock that shit all the way down. Use the privacy function available to you to the fullest extent and change your password on a regular basis. The suggested time frame tends to be every three months.
2. Check the credibility of your source: We see a lot of wild stories circulating on social platforms and the general internet these days, which on the face of it may seem harmless, but if believed by a large number of people, can cause a madness (…2016…) Checking the quality of the writing and timelines, sources and citations, going onto fact checker sites such as FactCheck.org, International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), PolitiFact.com, or Snopes.com.
3. Does it look right to you?: When it comes to fake videos it can be a lot harder to spot. But keep questions in your mind when viewing, such as, is their mouth moving too little? (Fake Obama has trouble with his “P” sounds, especially on “complete dipshit.”) Does their voice sound off? Are their movements jerky? Do they look like a video game (e.g. Sims)? And how does the person look in a real video? 

This new technological era we have found ourselves in requires a societal reeducation on how we consume content. You can test out how ‘easily fooled’ you are on this link by voting for which videos you think are real and fake and comparing them to what the general public voted for.

@CillaHope_

TheMoveHub.com