If you are active on social media then you must have heard the name of deepfake. Deepfakes are videos, audio clips or pictures that are created with artificial intelligence, but they look absolutely real. Many people make it for fun or parody, but with the help of this technology, scams are also increasing. Scammers are now creating such content with deepfakes, which people consider to be genuine and fall into their trap and end up causing losses. If we look at its misuse on a large scale, deepfake content is also being used to influence elections in many countries. In today’s explainer, we will know what is deepfake technology, how it works and whether it has only disadvantages or it also has some advantages.
What is deepfake technology?
Deepfake is media including photos, audio and video that has been created or manipulated with the help of AI. The term deepfake is a combination of deep learning concept and any fake thing. Tools to edit images, videos and sounds already exist, but deepfakes are newer than these. By using machine learning, it modifies the media in such a way that it becomes very difficult to differentiate between real and fake.
When did it start?
The term deepfake first came into the public domain in 2017, when a Reddit user with the username deepfake shared edited porn videos on the platform. Using Google’s open-source deep-learning technology, he swapped the faces of celebrities with performers seen in pornographic videos. This is how the world heard the term deepfake for the first time.
How does deepfake technology work?
After the arrival of AI, deepfake technology has also completely changed. Current deepfake AI works with two machine learning models that work against each other. It has a generator algorithm, which can generate or edit new content using sample audio, video or images. This algorithm tries to create content that exactly matches the sample. After this the work of the discriminator algorithm starts. It is designed to remove flaws from the sample. It points out gaps in the content where the generator algorithm missed the mark. To correct these deficiencies, the content is again sent to the generator algorithm. It is called Generative Adversarial Network (GAN). In this entire process, the generator and discriminator analyze data from the media sample. After this the generator creates or manipulates the media. This is the initial deepfake. After this, the discriminator detects the differences between the sample and the deepfake. Then this media goes back to the generator, which removes those deficiencies. This process continues until the deepfake looks exactly like the original.
This is also a way
There is also another way to create deepfakes, which is called Encoder’s AI algorithm. It is used to swap or change the face from a video or photo. In this a face is superimposed on a completely different body. Many deepfake tools also use two autoencoders, allowing both image and movement to be transferred from one image to another.
Disadvantages of deepfakes
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Scam- Cyber ​​criminals are carrying out scams with the help of this technology. For example, scammers are creating deepfake videos of kidnapping people and demanding ransom from their families. Apart from this, deepfake technology is being used to do many types of scams, due to which people are suffering huge losses.
porn video- Many people are superimposing faces of celebrities and common people on obscene videos with the help of deepfakes. This is a huge danger of deepfakes and it can completely ruin someone’s fame.
Election manipulation- Deepfake technology is also being used to influence elections. During elections, a leader can be asked to say something in a deepfake video which he never said. Its danger increases even more in democratic countries like India. A few years ago, a deepfake video of Barack Obama went viral all over the world.
Social engineering attack- Deepfake technology is also being used in social engineering scams. In these, people are fooled with deepfake audio. Scammers call an employee of a company posing as a CEO etc. and get a huge amount transferred to their account. Many such cases have come to light.
Spreading misinformation- Deepfake videos are also being used to spread wrong and false information. Some time ago, a video of Mark Zuckerberg went viral, in which he was claiming that with the help of a fictional organization shown in a movie, he has total control of the data of billions of people. Various videos with such conspiracy theories are going viral on social media.
Are there any benefits of deepfakes?
Useful things can also be done with deepfake technology. With this, parody and satirical videos can be created, which can entertain people. Apart from this, deepfakes can also be used for demonstration of technology, recreating historical events etc.
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