Seeing is believing they say... well not anymore! Last year, Buzzfeed released a viral video which used Obama's face to say many things that weren't expected. Now, many people knew something was off from the start, but it was the mark of a new era of "fake news." This technology is only getting better and the government is looking for a way to detect these deepfakes. Several universities and companies have been trying to make the technology even better just to figure out how to detect if the video is fake. However, it isn't just the visual we have to worry about, fake audio is another aspect that these companies are trying to combat. The Pentagon has invested apparently a lot of money for these fake videos. Deepfakes are potentially a huge issue for everyone. Misinformation is already a huge issue, but now audio and video, "the bedrock of truth," are no longer reliable. There are already those who don't believe in things that have video proof like the Holocaust, 9/11, the moon landing, or even a round earth. What happens to videos that are real? People can claim that they aren't real. Like if someone says something sexist or racist, they can claim it wasn't real? What is going to happen when these videos become more prevalent? How can we protect ourselves from this misinformation while we wait for the technology that can detect deepfakes to be ready for public use? In Junior year history, we learned about credibility for news sources and articles. Should we start to learn about the credibility of videos? What other concerns should companies and the government be concerned about with deepfakes?
Also, if you think you are good at determining what is fake or not, the link above has a little detection quiz.
Also, if you think you are good at determining what is fake or not, the link above has a little detection quiz.
With technology continuing to advance, I think it will be increasingly hard to protect ourselves from these videos.I'm not sure if there is one solid way to protect ourselves from these videos. We should be learning the credibility of our sources before believing what they say, and I think that is also a growing issue as more of these videos continue to grow. The nation tends to believe videos without fact checking or researching the sources and credibility. This concerns the government and politics because these videos can portray them in a bad light and can cause more tensions depending on what is being put in them.
ReplyDeleteWith the advances in technology, it has become easier and easier to doctor evidence. There is already questions regarding the reliability of the use of photos in the court of law, as photos can now be easily edited realistically. Now that video evidence can be tampered with as well, that leaves only eyewitness accounts, which can also be faulty or untrue. The existence of deepfakes has great implications on how justice will be conducted in the future, and also brings the possibility of a great increase in libel cases being brought to attention. There is little way to prevent ourselves from falling for deepfakes as of now, however for the most part, the usage of deepfakes does not seem to be widespread. Perhaps the best way to ensure the integrity of a video is to check to see who posted it. If it is from a reputable news organization or website, the video is less likely to be doctored than if it was shared on social media.
ReplyDeleteI believe that with the advances of technology, it will be harder for us to detect between the fake news. In order to protect ourselves, we will need to be more aware that there are fake news, videos, etc around use and try to make sense of news in its context. Also, finding the credability of different news sources should be something that should be taught in high school or younger.
ReplyDeleteAdvances in technology are both amazing and extremely dangerous. In my opinion, in order to combat dangerous deepfakes, it is key to educate the public and make sure sourcing is taught in school. The curriculum around our country should be very similar to our junior year sourcing curriculum, with a unit about sourcing deepfakes. In addition, some kind of justice should be involved in deepfakes because it is a violation of someones privacy to manipulate their words. I'm not sure exactly the legality of manipulative deepfakes, but people should have the right to sue if their videos are manipulated with false information. Thankfully, society is more and more aware of fake news and we are becoming more skeptical when information is presented to us, but the concern is that people will also question the truth. By the time these fake videos become more prevalent, we will hopefully have some technology to combat them.
ReplyDeleteFake news is already a dangerous aspect of society nowadays that can lead viewers to make false assumptions and assertions. Such deepfake videos are only another way for fake information to get out to the public. However, I believe we can protect ourselves from this misinformation without having to wait for the technology that can detect deepfakes to be ready for public use. Instead, we can protect ourselves by educating others to be skeptical of news in this era of fake news. In always questioning the reliability of a source, as we learned last year in US History, we will be at the very least more aware and prepared. Similar to determining the credibility of news articles and passages, we can learn about the credibility of videos by investigating the source of the video. Hopefully, in doing so, we will less easily give in to any misinformation.
ReplyDeleteI believe it is very important for us to learn the difference between what's real and what's fake in the media since many people rely on the media for their main source of information. With technology taking over, it is very easy for us to be tricked into believing deepfake videos especially without being educated about them. I used to think that learning about the reliability of a source was unnecessary, but after learning about so much fake news, I know that it is very important to learn about misinformation that can be very misleading.
ReplyDeleteArtificial intelligence now allows people to code and develop these types of fake videos. With a large database of prior images and videos, programmers can now artificially create these videos by using modified audio and visual adjustments. While the technology as of know is fairly rudimentary and not incredibly difficult to differentiate, with improved machines, it will be much harder to do this. Programs like this are designed to be able to learn and improve themselves, which would allow them to get better much faster. To some extent, I don't think we can completely prevent this technological change. Another related concern that many people have is whether or not machines will be able to produce creative work like art, music or literature as well as humans. This would not only be a concern of fraud but also of creative independence for people in this profession.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many news sources in our world today, and I think our junior history classes do a good job of teaching us how to ensure information is credible. In order to combat these fake videos, I believe one should simply fact check and double check all information stated in a source- video or writing- to ensure credibility. The saying "seeing is believing" is now unable to be used due to all of the false and inaccurate news sources in our society today.
ReplyDeleteAs technology is rapidly advancing it holds the potential for more disastrous effects. I think the government and legislation for newer technology is lagging behind the rate of advancement. Deepfakes are just another development amongst many technological threats the public faces. Personal security of one's private data has been another highly contested issue as of late. Despite major companies like Facebook and Google's reputations of monitoring and using user's private data for years, the government has just recently begun to consider specified and concrete legislation for such breaches of privacy. Although deepfakes are a different form of technological advancement, the same concept still applies. It will probably be years before the government gets around to addressing the threat and it will probably take a major incident for it to come about. National security organizations and legislators should push for stricter regulation on such technology and begin developing counter technology to recognize and shutdown deepfake threats and other falsified news.
ReplyDelete