From depictions of President Biden appearing to draft U.S. citizens for the war in Ukraine, to Donald Trump arrested, or the pope wearing a puffy jacket, deepfake photos and videos have been proliferating online in recent weeks.
These images, generated by artificial intelligence platforms available to everyone, appear more realistic than ever – and they’ve fooled many viewers. Tech expert Omar Gallaga wrote recently about the Trump arrest deepfake for the web site, Level. He says creating a deepfake can be as simple as typing in what you want at a site like Midjourney, that specializes in creating images based on its users’ imagination.
Highlights from this segment:
– Many AI-focused sites give users free access, making it easy for just about anyone to create an image that is both very realistic-looking and inaccurate.
– The Donald Trump arrest deepfakes were created by a journalist attempting to show how deepfakes can be created.
– Dangers associated with deepfakes include fooling people into believing they are real, especially if disclaimers created by those who create them are lost as the images proliferate on social media.
– Ways to identify deepfakes include: fuzzy or nonsense text, weird body angles or movement and images that look too glossy or polished.
