Throughout Digital Media Literacy I (MCO425), the vast amount of knowledge I have learned on ranging topics have really interest me. My favorite topic to learn about so far has been deep fakes. Despite being an avid user of social media and always browsing the internet, I never knew that deep fakes even existed. Maybe I’m just more oblivious than most, but the whole idea of deep fakes seems like something out of a James Bond movie, so I was quite surprised when I watched a video regarding it!
Deepfakes and Deep Media: A New Security Battleground : Kyle Wiggers, a writer with a background in artificial intelligence, offers a unique insight on deep fake videos and text patterns and how to look into them for the less obvious signs that they are fake. He discusses the ongoing battle that other technological companies face to create a software that can immediately identify the culprit fakes and further remove them from the internet. The struggle currently lies with the creators of these deep fakes, “There is minimum risk to the actor of getting caught. Because of the low risk, there is little deterrence to creating deep fakes.”, unfortunately resulting in the continuous creation of them. (Source provided by venturebeat.com)
The Societal Impacts of Deep Fakes : David Vandergrift, an artificial intelligence journalist and author, discusses the ‘hard to fathom’ results of deep fakes. The potential for AI to generate media from scratch seems to only recently become a concern despite its long road here. The lack of knowledge the public has regarding deep fakes is concerning, most technology cannot 100% accurately discover a deep fake as of now. The fear of using deep fakes for political attacks for the upcoming 2020 election is ever present as well. There is no safety for anyone who does not have the proper education regarding deep fakes. (Source provided by americaninno.com)
The Challenge of Deep Fakes : An Intel Brief discusses the proliferation of social media and accessible software technologies available to anyone seeking to manipulate images and videos. With unlimited access and real world consequences threatening essentially everyone, the pressure to handle and eliminate the situation top priority for some technological companies. States such as California and Texas (Maine to follow) have already enacted bills making the creation of, “deceptive videos intended to influence voting in U.S elections” illegal and punishable by law. (Source provided by thecipherbrief.com)
The Real Downside of Deep Fakes : Nigel Phair, influential analyst of technology, crime and society, discusses the struggle of needing to question everything with more and more deep fakes popping up online. Considering social media users share millions of images and videos everyday deep fakes are becoming more apparent and harmful to users. Deep fakes are, “the product of artificial intelligence or machine learning.” and in order to protect consumers, education on the topic is key. (Source provided by ia.acs.org.au)
I just watched the most interesting deep fake today, coincidentally. If you haven’t seen it you should totally check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OJnkJqkyio (It’s Back To The Future)
