Deepfake technology is a form of artificial intelligence that can alter a video. It can replace the faces of the people in the video and change it to whoever they want. It is often used in videos that require heavy CGI or VFX. It is quite useful when shooting a movie, it can be used to play a missing actor, without the actor being physically present during the filming of the scene. It can also be used to retouch a film. So why is it dangerous?
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Although a very efficient tool, it can create many issues when used for the wrong purposes. In the past, people have used deepfake technology to imitate celebrities' faces and published videos that spread misinformation. It is very dangerous as celebrities are public figures and have a massive following. Hence, it can create chaos if people use deepfake technology wrongly. Here are 4 celebrities who have been deepfaked without their knowledge or permission.
1. Barack Obama
One of the first widely circulated deepfakes was one made with the face of former US President Barack Obama. In a first video, researchers from the University of Washington succeeded in reproducing the shape of the former US President's mouth using an artificial intelligence neural network. A second video featured him insulting his successor, Donald Trump. This one was created by the American comedian and director Jordan Peele.
2. Tom Cruise
In March 2021, actor Tom Cruise was one of the faces that were subjected to these deepfake videos. The videos went viral on TikTok and Twitter and were created by Chris Ume, who actually wanted to raise awareness about false information on the internet. In several videos, Tom Cruise can be seen playing golf, doing a magic trick, or simply washing his hands. These images although not compromising, are, however, so realistic that they managed to fool the public.
3. Mark Zuckerberg
In 2019, Facebook and Instagram refused to ban deepfakes from their networks. To protest their decision, two British video editing artists, Bill Posters and Daniel Howe collaborated with an Israeli enterprise. They created several deepfake videos which they featured under their exhibition called ‘Spectre’. The specific video featuring Mark Zuckerberg showed him pledging allegiance to Spectre, the criminal organisation featured in the latest James Bond films. They wanted to prove the dangers of misinformation.
4. Volodymyr Zelensky
The most recent one featured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In March 2022, two weeks after the invasion of Russia, a video was released showing him realistically announcing that Ukraine was surrendering and giving up its arms. The video was proven to be fake but it was most likely published to demobilise the troops and discourage those supporting Ukraine. The use of deepfake in wartime can be extremely dangerous if it goes into the wrong hands.
This article is translated from GentsideFR.
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