The Internet says Hello to Deep Fakes
Buzzfeed news rocked the internet on April 17, 2018 when they published a video of Barack Obama saying some pretty crazy things before revealing the video was actually Jordan Peele superimposing his mouth over a video of the former president.
This wasn’t the start of deep fakes, but it’s probably one of the most notable and well-done examples.
Deep Fakes have been around for a little while now, some people tracing the popularization of the term back to a Reddit user called “deepfakes”, who launched a dedicated subreddit to it. The subreddit has since been closed however, due to the usage of the technology to superimpose individuals faces onto pornographic clips.
The technology has been used in the movie industry for a while now, such as bringing Grand Moff Tarkin back to life in the Stars Wars film Rogue One.
For a long time, this practice and special effect was limited to big business and the Hollywood industry, due to the cost and required technology to do so. But now, thanks for ever developing technology, we’re beginning to see an increase in accessibility to the technology behind DeepFakes.
So What Is a Deep Fake?
A combination of the phrase “deep learning” and “fake”, Deep Fakes is the process of using a neural network, or artificial intelligence to create or altar video and audio content
(Source: https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/deepfake )
The difference between standard Photoshop, video editing and CGI and Deep Fakes is the usage of a neural or artificial network and algorithm. Essentially, a program is collecting and analyzing hundreds of images and videos of something and then using that data to create an “approximation” of what something would look like in a new situation. What we end up with is something like this.
Get Nic Rolled//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js
While this is a humorous example, the technology of Deep Fakes contains both a plethora of good and bad usages to both everyday life and the world of digital communications.
If you want more in-depth information on how deep-fakes work, this article from the Medium does a pretty great job at how the technical process works.
https://medium.com/@jonathan_hui/how-deep-learning-fakes-videos-deepfakes-and-how-to-detect-it-c0b50fbf7cb9
The Good
On the Good side, you have the ability to bring people and things to life. Like the previously mentioned Rogue One example, we’ll be able to use DeepFakes to bring actors back to life for their famed roles.
On a personal side, an excellent example brought up at the immersion was the ability to use DeepFakes to create video/audio to allow family members to see their loved ones.
On the digital communications and public relations side, it could be a great tool to connect with audiences through the creation of humorous video. Deep Fakes don’t just work for people, you could even use them to approximate how a weather pattern could look, or the growth of wildlife and plants. The general application of digitally creating a realistic image alone carries nameless positive benefits for the world of communications.
The Bad
The downside to Deep Fakes is that there is a lot of bad. It’s already been evident from the number of celebrities that had their faces superimposed onto pornographic films. As quickly as the “deepfakes” subreddit appeared, it was quickly banned for the salacious things that were posted here.
(Source:
https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/a5s0iv/deep_fakes_where_did_they_go/ )
From revenge porn to political propaganda to potentially framing people for crimes, the applications of Deep Fakes can be shockingly disturbing. And when you pit this technology in a malicious light against the practice of Public Relations and Digital Communications, it becomes an item of concern.
Why all of this Matters
For a community of professionals that pride themselves on being transparent and honest, the ability to fabricate realistic video/audio can be an alarming concept. PR professionals will have be be more proactive than ever before to build relationships with their audiences so that it becomes easier to dispute fake news when using technology like Deep Fakes.
I believe it’ll be more all the more important moving forward for communications professionals to get smart on technology as well. It’s not just enough to know how to use social media anymore. In order to combat this type of technology and misinformation, we need to understand how it works.
This is Kip. See Kip Blog. 