NEWS FEATURE
27 September 2023
How to stop AI deepfakes from sinking society — and science
Deceptive videos and images created using generative AI could sway elections, crash stock markets and ruin reputations. Researchers are developing methods to limit their harm. Download PDF
NEWS FEATURE
27 September 2023
How to stop AI deepfakes from sinking society — and science
Deceptive videos and images created using generative AI could sway elections, crash stock markets and ruin reputations. Researchers are developing methods to limit their harm.
Nicola Jones
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Cartoon of an image of Albert Einstein wearing a white puffer jacket being generated by computers.
Illustration by Señor Salme
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This June, in the political battle leading up to the 2024 US presidential primaries, a series of images were released showing Donald Trump embracing one of his former medical advisers, Anthony Fauci. In a few of the shots, Trump is captured awkwardly kissing the face of Fauci, a health official reviled by some US conservatives for promoting masking and vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was obvious” that they were fakes, says Hany Farid, a computer scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, and one of many specialists who examined the pictures. On close inspection of three of the photos, Trump’s hair is strangely blurred, the text in the background is nonsensical, the arms and hands are unnaturally placed and the details of Trump’s visible ear are not right. All are hallmarks — for now — of generative artificial intelligence (AI), also called synthetic AI.
Science and the new age of AI: a Nature special
Such deepfake images and videos, made by text-to-image generators powered by ‘deep learning’ AI, are now rife. Although fraudsters have long used deception to make a profit, sway opinions or start a war, the speed and ease with which huge volumes of viscerally convincing fakes can now be created and spread — paired with a lack of public awareness — is a growing threat. “People are not used to generative technology. It’s not like it evolved gradually; it was like ‘boom’, all of a sudden it’s here. So, you don’t have that level of scepticism that you would need,” says Cynthia Rudin, an AI computer scientist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
Dozens of systems are now available for unsophisticated users to generate almost any content for any purpose, whether that’s creating deepfake Tom Cruise videos on Tik Tok for entertainment; bringing back the likeness of a school-shooting victim to create a video advocating gun regulation; or faking a call for help from a loved one to scam victims out of tens of thousands of dollars. Deepfake videos can be generated in real time on a live video call. Earlier this year, Jerome Powell, chair of the US Federal Reserve, had a video conversation with someone he thought was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but wasn’t.
Nicola Jones
Twitter Facebook Email
Cartoon of an image of Albert Einstein wearing a white puffer jacket being generated by computers.
Illustration by Señor
Download PDF
This June, in the political battle leading up to the 2024 US presidential primaries, a series of images were released showing Donald Trump embracing one of his former medical advisers, Anthony Fauci. In a few of the shots, Trump is captured awkwardly kissing the face of Fauci, a health official reviled by some US conservatives for promoting masking and vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was obvious” that they were fakes, says Hany Farid, a computer scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, and one of many specialists who examined the pictures. On close inspection of three of the photos, Trump’s hair is strangely blurred, the text in the background is nonsensical, the arms and hands are unnaturally placed and the details of Trump’s visible ear are not right. All are hallmarks — for now — of generative artificial intelligence (AI), also called synthetic AI.
Science and the new age of AI: a Nature special
Such deepfake images and videos, made by text-to-image generators powered by ‘deep learning’ AI, are now rife. Although fraudsters have long used deception to make a profit, sway opinions or start a war, the speed and ease with which huge volumes of viscerally convincing fakes can now be created and spread — paired with a lack of public awareness — is a growing threat. “People are not used to generative technology. It’s not like it evolved gradually; it was like ‘boom’, all of a sudden it’s here. So, you don’t have that level of scepticism that you would need,” says Cynthia Rudin, an AI computer scientist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
Dozens of systems are now available for unsophisticated users to generate almost any content for any purpose, whether that’s creating deepfake Tom Cruise videos on Tik Tok for entertainment; bringing back the likeness of a school-shooting victim to create a video advocating gun regulation; or faking a call for help from a loved one to scam victims out of tens of thousands of dollars. Deepfake videos can be generated in real time on a live video call. Earlier this year, Jerome Powell, chair of the US Federal Reserve, had a video conversation with someone he thought was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but wasn’t.
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