Have you ever noticed celebrities, politicians, or anyone else dubbed in a song, a scene from a movie, or an act? If so, you have witnessed a deep fake. A Deepfake video is one in which a person’s body or face has been digitally altered to make them appear to be someone else; this is typically done with malice or to disseminate erroneous information. These videos are produced using artificial intelligence.
Deepfake is generally used to make pornographic content, in which a person in an existing photo or video is replaced with someone else’s likeness. It is basically hyper-realistic digital falsification. Deepfake can be used to show a person being involved in anti-social activities.
It is on a large basis used to defame a person or an individual, which can have long-term effects on that person, both physically and mentally. Such erosion can contribute to a culture of factual relativism.
Deepfake is created by a network known as Generative Adversarial Network (GAN). This network consists of two AI components, one is Generator and the other one is called Discriminator. The first one is used to make the content and the other one is used to check whether the content is real or not.
Both components are complementary to each other. In the present time, Deepfake has been an easy task even for beginners. There are many mobile apps like DeepFace Lab, FaceApp, Face Swap, and DeepNude.
Deepfake can be used to edit a video in such a way that they show a person saying something which they may have never even said. Deepfake is not limited to videos, it can also be used to create fake audio by some person.
Some real-life incidents of Deepfake
- Donald Trump’s story about a reindeer
- A Deepfake video of former president Donald Trump was posted on YouTube by the Sassy Justice channel. By mocking the politician, it was intended to entertain the audience. Trump was caught telling a humorous reindeer story.
- Barack Obama’s public service announcement
- In 2018, BuzzFeedVideo made a Deepfake of former President Barack Obama. It was later found that actor Jordan Peele was the one impersonating the former president.
- There are many more real-life incidents of Deepfake, one of which is pornography. Deepfake is majorly used in pornography, where the identity of the real characters is replaced by someone else. It is a source that is used by enemies for revenge and the most affected by this are women.
Solutions:
Deepfake has so long been a huge threat to everyone, so there must be a solution to the danger that is caused by Deepfake. Media literacy is one of the most important factors to combat this danger. Secondly, strict laws can be made, which should be followed by everyone.
Cyber laws should be made more rigid. People should also be taught not to spread fake content and most importantly not to share and reshare such content, instead they must report the same.