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Deepfakes, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About the Collapse of Consensus Reality and Love the Creative Potential.
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In this video, Bill Hader morphs into Tom Cruise and Seth Rogen only WHILE impersonating them—with transitions that are virtually seamless to the human eye (via @ctrl_shift_face 🙌). It’s an undeniably genius use of the deepfake format.
@ctrl_shift_face I’ve noticed that every time deepfakes come up in conversation, people get squirrely. The concern is that in the future, this tech will be used to weaponize likenesses for propaganda (ie. a video of Trump preaching the merits of an open border).
@ctrl_shift_face Given the international cyberwarfare conducted during the last US election, it’s understandable why this idea makes people jumpy. For this, there’s good news and there’s bad news:
@ctrl_shift_face The good news is that deepfaked video is still detectable.
AI can note deviated lighting/shadows & artifacts in video & audio—as well as blink and breath patterns in subjects
AI can note deviated lighting/shadows & artifacts in video & audio—as well as blink and breath patterns in subjects
@ctrl_shift_face For the foreseeable future, it’s not a major concern. The bad news lies in what deepfakes reveal about us: that we live in a time where it’s impossible to agree on consensus reality, where deepfakes give criminals the opportunity to decry real actions caught on video as fake.
@ctrl_shift_face Deepfakes don’t offer us something new so much as they offer that capability to a broader number of people with faster timeframes.
Compared to the time & cost of producing the doctored footage in Forest Gump (1994), for example, deepfakes are a miracle.
Compared to the time & cost of producing the doctored footage in Forest Gump (1994), for example, deepfakes are a miracle.
@ctrl_shift_face But it's still not easy enough that any old goof can do it well enough to truly fool us.
We’re way more likely to witness shallowfakes like the slowed-down Nancy Pelosi video, which require no coding background and involve a fraction of the time/cost.
We’re way more likely to witness shallowfakes like the slowed-down Nancy Pelosi video, which require no coding background and involve a fraction of the time/cost.
@ctrl_shift_face So…that’s that. Back to the fun stuff.
@ctrl_shift_face The creative potential of deepfakes is super exciting.
@ctrl_shift_face reveals a simple & powerful use case with Bill Hader: augmenting impressions. Imagine that the next time you watched a standup special, a deepfake amplified every impression.
@ctrl_shift_face reveals a simple & powerful use case with Bill Hader: augmenting impressions. Imagine that the next time you watched a standup special, a deepfake amplified every impression.
@ctrl_shift_face One of the juiciest, most fraught creative territories will be virtual resurrection.
Deepfakes make it easier than ever to “resurrect” historical & fictional characters. Soon, it won't just be actors in Star Wars movies. It'll be in art, ads, messaging, & more. @TheDali 👇
Deepfakes make it easier than ever to “resurrect” historical & fictional characters. Soon, it won't just be actors in Star Wars movies. It'll be in art, ads, messaging, & more. @TheDali 👇
@ctrl_shift_face @TheDali Increasingly, creatives & media artists can use deepfakes to deepen their practice—whether it’s to make political statements… 👇@BrandalismUK
@ctrl_shift_face @TheDali @BrandalismUK I’m not saying we shouldn’t be rigorous in verifying deepfakes; we should.
But maybe some of the solutions to these larger problems—of which deepfakes are a symptom—might be unlocked in exploring & discussing the creative potential of new technologies.
But maybe some of the solutions to these larger problems—of which deepfakes are a symptom—might be unlocked in exploring & discussing the creative potential of new technologies.
