Category: Uncategorized

A Shallow look at Deep Fakes

by Kip, posted in Uncategorized

Here’s something unsettling.

Source:
https://media.giphy.com/media/l4pTnYGTJLCjB6Mz6/giphy.gif

Now, it’s not entirely convincing, but it’s pretty good, right?

Photoshop and CGI have been around for a long time. From creating science fiction or fantasy backdrops to inserting Tom Hanks into a meeting with John F. Kennedy, people have been using special effects and video techniques to fabricate scenes, people and pictures since film was first created.

Even Charlie Chaplain used optical illusion in order to create a scene and tell a story in some of his films.

Credit:
https://gfycat.com/obviouseuphorichadrosaurus-chaplin-movies

For the longest time, CGI and special effects cost time, money, and people; and so for a long time, it was kept secure and safe within the realm of mass media and Hollywood.

However, here’s the thing about humans and technology; we’re getting really good and making things smaller and more accessible. We don’t seem to have flying cars and teleporters just yet, but humanity continues to advance technology and expand the realms of what we thought possible.

Rooms of computing power that was used to send people to the moon can now be outdone by a graphic calculator or even the most basic smartphone. And what was once available only to the elite and big-budget studios of the film industry can now be reproduced on a singular desktop computer.

All of this is to talk about the idea of Deep Fakes, or the processing of using machine learning and neural networks in order to create false videos and imagery.

So what is a Deep Fake?

What essentially happens here is that a neural network, or an advanced computer system, can aggregate and collect hundreds of pieces of images and video of an individual or an object, and using that data, create a new image that approximates the data without copying it.

Essentially, a computer that has hundreds of photos of a famous politician can look at all the different expressions and features of a politician, and create an “average” image out of that database. The more photos and video, the more realistic it can appear.

Here’s an example of how Jordan Peele used a neural network in order to give former President Obama some words of his own.

Credit: Buzzfeed Video

A “Deep Fake” can also be used to create fake audio, as illustrated by the “A Stable Genius” YouTube channel, which uses an algorithm in order to create humorous explanations from the current U.S. President Donald Trump.

So most of the examples that I’ve shown you are either humorous or entertaining; and for the most part, that’s what people have been using them for. If nothing else, the generation of new memes has driven a lot in terms of social progress.

The Ugly Side of Fake

It’s easy to imagine what a problem that fake audio and video can pose to Public Relations and the truth-telling community as a whole. And while many people think of Deep Fakes in memes and funny videos, Deep Fakes were actually given their name when a Reddit User named “DeepFake”, began using a network to post fake pornographic video, superimposing celebrities faces onto hardcore pornography.

Revenge porn, copyright, defamation, evidence tampering, political propaganda, misinformation in general. The list of things that Deep Fakes could be used for is only limited by the imagination, and now to those with a powerful enough computer.

This means it will only become harder for Public Relations professionals and journalists to sort out what is real and what’s not. PR professionals now not only have to worry about what is coming out of their organization, but what could be put out there by other individuals/organizations about them, making it appear like it’s their own doing.

While some of these examples are more obvious, how hard will it be to pick out a face digitally altered in a crowd, or perhaps a video of a foreign politician’s words in another country? Maybe someone uses Deep Fakes to create damaging video or audio of an organization they don’t like and leaks it as if it’s real? How often has attempting to deny something worked successfully for PR agencies?

For the longest time, the common phrase “pics or it didn’t happen” has been the guiding mentality of much of modern culture. Back up what you’re saying with photos, video and media content and people are more likely to listen and believe you.

But now it’s going to take a new approach to PR; in my opinion, a more aggressive approach in order for PR professionals to protect the name and credibility of whatever organization they represent. It will no longer be enough for people to sit on the sidelines and deflect when things happen. PR professionals need to be less reactionary and more pro-active in order to ensure that Deep Fakes and similar technology doesn’t work against them.

Deep Fakes are still a work in progress and aren’t as easy as just taking a photo and adding a filter, but they’re getting better and better. It’s important for PR professionals to be able to look at these types of developing trends and anticipate and guard against them.

But for now, here’s one more Deep Fake of Steve Buscemi face on Jennifer Lawrence.

Want to know more about Deep Fakes?
Check out this “Quick-Take” from Bloomberg below.

Or check out the article below from the Guardian.

You thought fake news was bad? Deep fakes are where truth goes to die
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/12/deep-fakes-fake-news-truth


SU Immersion: Faking out the Digital Communications World

by Kip, posted in Uncategorized

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.

I’m Back…Because you told me toooo!

by Kip, posted in Uncategorized
^This a joke.
It’s from Spongebob. Please don’t take points off my assignment.

So I feel like I promised that I would keep updating this blog after my last semester course ended.

But then it wasn’t mandatory and life happened, as things always do. So I apologize to any internet ghosts that were actually following this, because I’m only back because it’s required by my current course for this semester. So for your reading (and my professor’s) reading pleasure, please see my below answer to the question I was asked.

1) Based on your experience with WordPress, what are your impressions with working with WordPress—the pros and cons? It started as a blogging platform but has evolved—should it still be relegated for small blogs, or do you see enterprise use?

What WordPress is good for though is giving people a great easy avenue to spill out what they have to say in an easy-to-read format. The modules are easy to grasp and it’s good for sectioning off your content into subjects and paragraphs.

My Opinion:

Here’s hoping the WordPress Gods don’t shut me down for my critiques of their website.

WordPress is a good functional site for words. It’s great for that beginning author/journalist/blogger that wants to take a dip in the shallow end of the web-design pool.

But without extra HTML knowledge or something that I’m missing, the website seems to lack features for people that actually want to make a customized website. Even just trying to figure out how to center the above-heading was a chore (which btw, was editing in html and adding a <center></center> tag)

Writing this blog post right now, I have to write everything in specific blocks straight down the middle. No re-sizing, or re-arranging or including additional content. Perhaps that’s the template I chose, perhaps that’s the website, but I feel like I should know jumping into the site if I have that flexibility or not.

I’m sure that you can get someone to create a more user-friendly template or design a better layout for your site. But for someone with little financial resources or perhaps someone who isn’t even sure if it’s worth the time, WordPress limits it’s free users to a very specific set of functions.

I think that WordPress is an excellent tool for the beginner writer, or someone looking to see if website design is for them as well. All I have to do is type what I want to say, maybe add a picture block or two, and boom. Blog Post done.

And I know that some websites use WordPress for Enterprise purposes. But it’s probably more trouble than it’s worth, and for companies with any cash to spend on website design, they may be better off on a service like SquareSpace.

A steadfast rock in a digital monsoon

by Kip, posted in Uncategorized

or the future of a series of tubes

I think that every generation I’ve talked to thinks the next one will have flying cars. It used to be thought that the 2000s would bring the future (or an apocalypse at the hand of computers). But things only seem to be getting smaller and more portable, we’re building on foundations, but it doesn’t seem like we’re revisiting the cornerstones as often as most would like. At the very least, technology and the future is coming a lot slower than we used to think it would happen.

That’s not to say things aren’t changing, and it’s often a fun comment to say, “what a time to be alive”, but we’re definitely not at a Jetsons level yet, are we?

However, at the heart of almost all our advancements, small as they are sometimes, there is often one central point: the internet.

Called a series of tubes, a cultural hub, the death of classic society, it’s been seen as everything from the greatest thing since sliced bread to the death of traditional values (and a way to get sliced bread delivered to your door fast!).

But despite everyone’s opinions, the internet is going to be around for a long time, if not forever. So what does that mean for humanity’s (arguably) greatest invention?

It means a stalemate.

But that’s not a bad thing. Sure, things will be faster, hardware might converge (can’t wait for Apple’s new laptop/phone/tablet/toaster…. I-toast?), but the internet as what it currently stands as probably won’t change for a long time.

The internet by itself, in my opinion, is a delivery vehicle; a way for different companies, small businesses, creative artists and individuals to broadcast their message or their platform or facilitate their technological advancements. It’s a way for every individual to have their own soap box. But since it’s widespread release around the 1990’s, the internet has pretty much been the same thing since launch: a transmission hub.

There’s a lot of talk about “fixing the internet” or “redefining the web experience” or “changing internet culture”, but that’s a lot of buzz-words. The user experience may change, companies may change their portals to the internet, but the internet itself? That isn’t budging (outside of no longer hearing your phone line dying as you connected to aol.com).

If you’re looking at how we receive the internet? That’s a different story.

With the rise of virtual and augmented reality, and the increase in portability of those types of hardware, the information that’s delivered to us will continue to increase in dimensions. I see it eventually transitioning from a 2D to a 3D environment. The world wasn’t ready for Google Glass when it was released (google’s attempt to bring futuristic computer displays to your glasses), but it’ll probably catch on more in the next decade or so.

Eventually, we may even go even more immersive. Is it really that far-fetched to think of “smell-o-vision” from Futurama becoming an actual thing in the future? People could smell perfumes and cosmetics in virtual malls, restaurant websites can entice you with smells of their daily specials. “Try before you buy” could have a whole new meaning as the online experience moves towards a more immersive platform.

But as for the structure of the internet itself? There might be a lot of advancements in infrastructure and engineering, but those are matters that I have no authority or knowledge to speculate on. However, I believe the internet will continue to remain steadfast in what it is as a platform.

It’s the foundation of a lot of what we base and build our current technology on. It’s the host of all of our future advancements and it’s quickly becoming (if it isn’t already) the digital history of the human race.

It’s easy to continue to build onto a building, but it’s a lot harder to rebuild it’s base. Will the internet be any different? My thoughts right now? I doubt it, and again, that’s not a bad thing.

We need some stability in our lives, a constant, a rock to cling to through the torrent of new fads and technological crazes. That’s what the internet serves, and I’m perfectly happy with it continuing to do that, at least until someone far more creative than me comes along.

Step 1: Write some words

by Kip, posted in Uncategorized

I had thought that blogs were kind of dead circa….2010 and on? It seemed like nobody had a blog anymore, forgoing custom sites and websites like Go-Daddy, Geocities and WordPress for Tumblr and social media. I guess I’m wrong? Or maybe the circles in which I operated (which are very small), just wasn’t the target demographic.

But here I sit, typing away on this site with the words “blog” sitting plainly in my  url.

In all honesty? I’m starting this blog because I have to, as a requirement for a graduate school program I’m taking in Communications. But, that’s not necessarily to say that I don’t want to. Just because something is mandated doesn’t mean it cant be enjoyable.

I’ve wanted a reason to find a creative outlet for a while now. Wanted to start a YouTube channel (but don’t know how to do video things), wanted to start a podcast (but have nothing to talk about), wanted to do review videos (see item 1), and many other ventures. But maybe I needed a reason?

Maybe I need a prompt, or an external factor to push me to do something. Everything I hear from self-made creative types and Nike is to “just do it”. Just start writing or start shooting and the rest will come. I’ve tried most other modes of operations so maybe it’s time to finally take that advice.

This blog will mostly be filled with reflection posts on the classes that I’m currently taking, right now it’s “Introduction to Digital Communications”. But maybe it’ll become something more?

At the very least, I’ll become one of the many people projecting into the void that is the internet, and maybe something will project back. But everyone has to start somewhere and I’ve got to try if I want to find out for sure.

So let’s get started.