Deepfakes

#GS-03 Science and Technology, Cyber Security

Deepfakes are synthesised media that are either wholly generated or manipulated by Artificial Intelligence.
They can include images, audio and video and are used to show real people saying and doing things they never did, or creating new images and videos.
Deepfakes are used to tarnish reputations, create mistrust, question facts, and spread propaganda.
The word ‘deepfake’ is a combination of ‘deep learning’ which is a subset of the artificial intelligence and the word ‘fake’.
India has not enacted any specific legislation to deal with deepfakes so far.
Currently, most social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter have banned deepfake videos.
They have declared that if they detect any video as deepfake manipulated or synthetically generated, it will be taken down.

Currently, deep fakes are identified manually or by using software, through some identifiers such as:

Flicking, blur with bleeding colour, etc. will be present in poorly produced deep fake videos.
Unusual eye blinking pattern is seen in deep fake videos
Using markers known as “soft biometrics” of a person i.e., his/her eyebrow movements, lip movements, etc can help to determine deepfakes.

96% of deepfakes were pornographic videos and 99% of those mapped faces from female celebrities on to porn stars.
Deepfake have been commonly used to misrepresent/malign well-known politicians in videos.
This technology is being increasingly used for creating fake news, hoaxes, and committing financial fraud.
Photographs generated through deepfakes can be used to create sock puppetse., non-existent persons, who are active both online and in traditional media.
However, Deepfake can also be used legally, such as in movies in order to replace actors who are not able to complete the movie.
This was seen in Fast and Furious 7 where deepfake was used to pay tribute to the deceased cast member Paul Walker.

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